Businesses and residents along Lower Estates, St George, though glad to see progress on long-awaited road rehabilitation, said the length of time the work has taken is putting increasing pressure on those who live and work along the route.
For some business owners, the construction has meant fewer customers, shorter operating hours and difficulty keeping food and other products free from dust, while residents say they are hoping the work is completed before the height of the hurricane season.
Shop owner Oshana Clement of Holder’s Variety told Barbados TODAY the reduction in traffic along the road has affected her sales.
“There is also a drop in sales because you know the construction is going on, so there’s not much traffic flow as usual,” she explained. “Sales have declined, but it is still there, but not what we expected that it would usually be.”
She also raised concerns about the amount of dust being generated by the work, saying it has forced her to close the front of her business earlier than usual.
“Sometimes we see a truck like once in the day, and then you don’t see back until 7:30 at night,” Clement said. “The dust is really, really bad.
“The shop, the front will open, beside here will open most of the time, like 10 o’clock; I will have to shut the two fronts because all the dust will come in and be on the product and I sell food and you know you can’t deal with food and dust at the same time.”
The concerns are not limited to businesses.
Charles Daniel, who has lived in Lower Estate all his life, said he supports the rehabilitation and believes the work needs to be completed.
“I like it. I really like it,” the 77-year-old said. “People complaining about this road… but right from here down to where it actually finish off the sides.”
Daniel believes completing the work should be a priority given the hurricane season adding that from what he could see, some of the remaining work involved connecting pipes.
“All they got to do now is connect the pipes, you know,” Daniel explained.
Cyclist Curtis Greaves also acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the construction but said motorists have to accept some disruption while the work is being done.
“This road is a lot of chaos, stress for motorists actually driving,” Greaves said. “But like I say, men work. So, you got to give them time.”
Greaves said he had noticed the current phase of work for about two weeks and was hopeful that the road would eventually be completed.
“Probably here longer, but I’m sure it’ll be done by Christmas,” he said.
For businesses located directly along the route, however, the disruption has been more difficult to absorb.
Managing Director of Roberts Manufacturing Company Limited Jonathon Hart said his company has not been affected operationally to the same extent as nearby residents, but employees have had to contend with the dust.
Managing Director of Roberts Manufacturing Company Limited Jonathon Hart (LE)
“The construction has been going on for a couple of months now. And yes, there have been inconveniences,” Hart noted. “I do feel for the residents because it’s a lot of dust, every day and a lot of traffic.”
Hart said Roberts Manufacturing has measures in place to ensure the dust does not affect its products, including daily testing by its quality assurance department.
“So we’re happy to see… C.O. Williams and the other companies are working very hard, and we see the water trucks every day driving past and obviously putting down water to kind of reduce the amount of dust.”
He stressed that the road is an important route for motorists travelling across the island.
“This stretch of road, from Charles Rowe Bridge up to us, is traversed by many Barbadians every day,” Hart explained. “It’s an excellent, you know, little highway almost to get you over and across the island.”
But he said the greatest concern remains those who have to endure the conditions outside and around their homes every day.
“I think the biggest challenge… is the residents,” Hart said. “I feel for the residents who are going through more than we are. You know, we get to go home at the end of a shift. They’re still living through it.”
Owner of Shakabella, Angela Boucher, described the road conditions as one of the most difficult she has experienced since starting her business.
“Road conditions have been horrendous,” Boucher said. “I’ve had customers, it’s basically put my business in a shambles.”
Customers have complained about the condition of the road and the dust, while the efforts to wet the roadway have also presented challenges, she said.
“You have to beg for the water people to come and wet the road, and then when it is wet, they overwet it and therefore all the water has splashed up.”.
Boucher said the impact on her business has been significant, with customers sometimes choosing to collect items upstairs rather than spend time at the establishment.
“I’m struggling. I’m suffering. There’s no other way to put it,” she said. “There’s no compensation for us for loss of business. And therefore there’s not much that we can do. We just have to ride out the storm.”
She estimated that the disruption to her business began about a week after the rehabilitation work started and has continued for roughly three months.
Boucher is also concerned about what further rainfall could mean for the already-challenged roadway.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen because you know when it rains, no work is being done,” she said. “And all the filling that they put into the potholes in the road is washed back out and eventually ends up onto the pavement.”
She recalled heavy rainfall last week caused water to run along the side of the road and into the area around her business.
“The horrendous rain that we had, had all the water coming off the road and running down the side of it, and we closed down my karaoke,” Boucher said. “All the back was flooded because it literally was gushing like a stream down the side.”
She believes the weather could extend the disruption, saying she does not expect the work to be finished before next year.
“Because of the weather stream right now, I don’t see this being finished until next year, which means we have to battle this the rest of the year,” Boucher predicted.
At Kenes Variety, owner Livingstone Springer said the dust and traffic have become an everyday burden.
“I come here six days a week to see if I can pay my light bill, water bill, Internet bill, but it’s extremely hard because people would basically detour and go to an area where it’s probably dust-free or less,” Springer said.
He said the situation has affected both his business and his family, including his elderly mother.
“I got an 88-, 89-year-old mother inside there,” Springer said. “And I just feel for her, ‘cause it don’t be easy.”
Springer also questioned the pace and consistency of the work, saying there have been periods when workers did not appear on site.
“Sometimes…we will sit down here and realise that no workers turn up for whatever reason,” he said.
He added that residents and businesses have heard repeatedly about work involving the pipes, only to see other sections of the road dug up.
“We were hearing about testing the pipes, but then for the last two months we’ve been hearing that, and then we see something come and dig up another part,” Springer said the uncertainty has taken an emotional and financial toll.
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