In Trinidad and Tobago we generally fail to implement the things that are planned but more often over-implement things which are unplanned. The main reason for this is that planning decisions are political decision makers and for short term political reasons. The result as in the case of our transportation infrastructure is the transportation crisis faced throughout the country

1. Meeting of Rotary Club of Point-a-Pierre, Petrotrin Lakeside
Club, 20th January 2011
Presentation by Vaughn Lezama – R. Eng., FAPE
Planning and Decision Making Issues in Development of
National Transportation Infrastructure
Two days ago there was the grand opening of the Aranguez
Overpass. The fanfare associated with this event would have
suggested to the motoring public that some great relief of their
traveling woes was at hand. As it turned out, motorists soon
discovered that the traffic jam which occurs during the peak
morning period at the point of convergence of the CRH and UB
Highway was simply transferred to a point immediately west of
El Socorro Junction and there were reports of some
disappointment that the anticipated free flow to POS was not
realized. It should however be noted that some relief would
indeed be realized when the section of the Beetham Highway on
the west bound approach to the lighthouse in POS is upgraded to
3-lanes, which are still under construction at this time. In
addition the peak afternoon eastbound traffic heading out of POS
to Chaguanas and San Fernando would enjoy a well deserved
freeway ride to at least the outskirts of their destination.
On the other hand the frustration of motorists going further east
will continued and this would be the case both during the
morning and afternoon peak periods. It would be quite some
time and several hundreds of millions of dollars before any
major relief can be achieved along the existing CRH, assuming
that the intension or decision is to continue the effort to convert
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2. the CRH to freeway status. The reported cost of the Aranguez
Overpass is $161M (which is said to be $25M under budget) and
it was announced that in two to three weeks time construction, at
a cost of $430M, of an overpass to eliminate the traffic lights at
the CRH/UB Highway will commence. It is noted further that
the announced budgeted cost of land acquisition for construction
of the Aranguez overpass was $65M and the cost of ancillary
roads $80M, these costs are not is included in the $161M cost of
the Overpass structure. Furthermore, the overpass and related
works already completed in the Grand Bazaar area exceeds
$450M in cost.
The cost of the combined Aranguez and Grand Bazaar
overpasses and related frontage roads and bridges is therefore in
the vicinity of $1,086M (161+430+65+450+80) and we have
only just got started. There are some 15 traffic signalized
intersections along the CRH from POS to Arima. If we were to
convert the existing highly urbanized CRH to a complete
freeway I estimate that it would cost much more than the $5.0B
which is the current estimated cost for construction of the
Highway from San Fernando to Point Fortin and which includes
a number of other related road development works in the south.
I have said all of this in order to introduce the point I wish to
make with regard to Planning and Decision Making in
developing our national transportation infrastructure and for that
matter any aspect of our national development. The question is.
Do our decision makers follow plans which have been developed
to inform and guide the decision making processes along the
path of development or do they simply make decisions on the
basis of expediency? The evidence which I propose to put to you
tonight suggests that when the country is broke or money low we
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3. do engage in various planning processes, very often these are
funded by international agencies such as the IADB and the
World Bank. However, once the treasury is in good standing the
decision making process is very rarely guided by the very plans
which were commissioned at great public expense. In the latter
circumstance, our decision makers embark on the over
implementation of things unplanned and the non implementation
of those things which have been planned.
Since independence in 1962 the state has commissioned two
National Transportation Studies. These are the NTS of 1967 and
the CNTS of 2005. Between that period at least two sectorial
transportation studies were commissioned, one being the
East/West Corridor Transportation Study, (I can’t recall the
name of any other but the TRRP is not included among these).
Both NTS were undertaken by the same engineering firm,
Parsons Brinkerhoff, which is a US based engineering firm.
The 1967 NTS identified the CR Highway as an urban highway
which straddles the southern perimeter of the towns along the
populated east-west corridor. This Highway is frequently
traversed by intersections along its entire length and as such its
capacity to handle high volume traffic is severely compromised.
Substantial improvement in the capacity of this Highway would
require the construction of numerous intersection overpasses or
other major improvement measures at each intersection.
The 1967 NTS therefore recommended as an alternative to the
CR Highway the construction of a new six lane freeway parallel
and south of the CR Highway to be known as the Southern Link
Freeway. This highway would have commenced from the
Barataria Interchange, veering south and then east, crossing the
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4. UB Highway with a major intersection near the Caroni River and
continuing further east to the present Macoya Junction. All
south-bound traffic would exit at the intersection of the Southern
Link Freeway and the UB Highway. This recommendation was
at the time considered to be most valuable in the development of
the country’s transportation infrastructure and as such the design
of this Highway infrastructure was commissioned to a joint
venture team consisting of a local and foreign engineering firm
sometime around the mid- eighties when the treasury was low.
The design for this freeway, including Environmental Impact
Assessment, construction drawings, specifications and tender
documentation were completed in entirety, the consultants paid
in full and the designs submitted to the relevant authority.
Due to the economic circumstances at the time, construction of
the Southern Link Freeway was deferred. However, even with
the turnaround in our economic fortunes, there was never a
review of this important transport infrastructure to determine the
extent to which the design could have been modified or
implemented in phases to meet the growing traffic volume along
the east-west corridor and more so the north-south traffic which
is required to joint the east-west traffic on the CR Highway.
Instead of considering construction of the Southern Link
Freeway for which there existed complete engineering designs,
our decision makers decided to embark on the construction of a
major facility at the CRH and UB Highway intersection since
this idea had gained enormous political currency as a result of
the daily traffic pileup faced by the traveling public at that
intersection. As it turned out the recommendation to construct
the Southern Link Freeway was again repeated in the 2005
CNTS so that the transportation planners have recognized that
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5. this Highway continues to be an important element for the
development of the national transportation infrastructure.
My estimation is that implementation of the Southern Link
Freeway would have carried a cost of more than $2.0B and
together with the four-lane dualling of the CR Highway and
other road improvement works in POS would have provided a
more sustainable and cost effective solution to the East-West
Corridor transportation nightmare as compared to the ongoing
challenges and cost associated with the construction of
overpasses along the CR Highway.
Now, how did we arrive at this state of crisis? I submit that is the
result of poor decision making rather than a lack of planning.
The CRH and UBH intersection is where the east-west and
north-south traffic meet and it is recognized as the busiest
intersection in the country. With the continued growth in
vehicular traffic, commuters became increasingly frustrated with
the traffic pileup at that intersection and believed that some form
of elevated interchange at the location was necessary to solve the
traffic woes. Of course the average man in the street would not
recognize that the reason traffic seems to be free flowing
immediately after the intersection is because of the constriction
taking place at the intersection. However, once this becomes free
the problem is transferred to the next intersection unless there are
improvements there as well and so on. The planners however
would know this and would therefore seek to recommend
solutions that are sustainable for at least a minimum desired
period until other improvements are implemented.
With the general call by the traveling public for some
improvement at the UB/CRH intersection, the construction of
some form of overpass became an attractive political
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6. proposition. Several proposals, both solicited and unsolicited,
began to surface and these culminated with a proposal which
became known as the Humphrey’s Arch. Engineering designs for
this proposal were commissioned and substantially advanced and
the public was sold on the brilliant idea. Construction of the
proposed Arch Bridge became embroiled in controversy with
regard to the procurement processes and did not get off the
ground before there was a change in regime. By that time the
idea of an overpass at the intersection had already gained public
acclaim and valuable political currency. As a result, the new
decision maker occupying the Ministry of Works decided to
move forward with the project but with a new and different
design at further cost to taxpayers and part of which is the
overpass at the Gran Bazaar which we have today. At no time
was any decision made to review the designs for the Southern
Link Freeway to consider its implementation in whole or in part.
When this question was posed to the last outgoing Minister of
Works his response was that his Ministry in fact reviewed the
design and found that it was not feasible. Suffice it to say
however, that the 2005 CNTS, like the 1967 NTS recommended
construction of the Southern Link Highway. Previously this
highway was proposed from POS to Macoya while in the latest
study it was proposed in three phases, POS to the UBH
Interchange, the UBH Interchange to Piarco and Piarco to
Wallerfield. It should be noted that by the time the CNTS was
being prepared the UBH Interchange was a done deal, hence the
proposed realignment to the UBH Interchange instead of the
previously proposed Interchange with the UBH near the Caroni
River Bridge.
In general, the reason for undertaking transportation studies from
time to time is to inform the planning and implementation
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7. processes required to satisfy identifiable needs in keeping with
the country’s development objectives. How, therefore do we
explain the launching of the $19B first phase of the NNHP
mega-project in October 2009, which included the construction
of highways, proposed to commenced in 2010, but which the
Roadway Capital Development Program identified by the CNTS
proposed a 2014 – 2018 implementation period while at the same
time numerous other road development programs with an earlier
implementation timeline are left unattended. Incidentally
extension of the SHH to point Fortin was given a 2009 – 2013
implementation period in the CNTS and it is reported that this
project will comment very shortly. (This is a project we have
been seriously talking about since the early 80s).
In closing my final observation is that urban centres around the
country such as Chaguanas, Couva/Point Lisas, Gasparillo/Point-
a-Pierre, San Fernando, Arima, Four Road, Diego Martin,
Valencia/Sangre Grande, etc. are in crisis as far as their
transportation infrastructure is concerned. Yet simple and cost-
effective recommendations for relieve proposed by various
transportation studies are overlooked. (I should add that the
recent cost-effective traffic management measures recently
implemented in Chaguanas is however commendable). It would
appear that that we have recently experienced an era in which
there was a continuous search for mega projects which very
often were solutions to mini or non-existent problems while
there were many mega problems that could have been solved by
mini solutions. I would therefore like to advise this audience
tonight that the transportation crisis which faces the country
today is not the result of the failure of engineers or engineering
or a reflection of the country’s engineering capability but rather
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8. it is the result of the indulgences of our decision makers. I
hereby rest my case. Thank You.
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