The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ROADWORKS on East Bay Street are angering some residents and business owners, reigniting longstanding concern that highway repairs typically take place during the day rather than at night.

The works began on Monday as the Ministry of Works continues its repairs to all major roads on the island.

“I’m a Bahamian and I do not understand what is the problem why our people cannot work at night or early morning,” said a manager at Poop Deck. “This is absolutely ridiculous. My partner sitting down there, upstairs here we could still hear the noise going on outside and it’s not very nice trying to have a lunch with all the noise outside. I know things have to be done but even out west, big BEC truck blocking the traffic, 10am this morning, what is their problem they cannot work at off hours? It just boggles my mind. You know what our traffic is like right now? It’s terrible.”

Mike Hanna, a sales representative at Marlin Marine, complained that customers and watercraft have been left swamped in dust from the works.

“The rocks are actually flying,” he said. “People who told them do this job, they should know business hours would be the worst time for this. It should take place in the early morning. It’s like we selling dust machines right now.”

Ian Rademaker, president of Harbourside Marine, wondered why the repairs are happening in December during the busy Christmas season. “I went out there and started making noise to these guys (on Monday) and I said ‘listen, this is like the worst time of the year, why don’t you start in January?’” he said. “They said it’s what their boss told them do. They said they’ll be done by Wednesday, which (was yesterday), so I said alright, but if this rolls through the weekend that’ll be a nightmare.” In fact, the repairs were not completed yesterday. A weekend public notice said the works would persist for five working days, starting December 10. The repairs are taking place between 9.30am and 2pm.

Attorney Wayne Munroe, whose law firm is on East Bay Street near Double Dragon, took aim at the timing of the repairs as well.

“As envisaged traffic is backed up all directions,” he said on Facebook. “Took the 45 minutes of the hour break I had for lunch from court to come back to office in a line on East Bay Street. But hey we are just complainers.”

Some, like Maryann McSweeney, operations manager of Lightbourne Marine, stressed that however inconvenient the repairs are, they are necessary to rid the road of its many potholes.

“It’s inconvenient more-so for my staff coming and going with the company vehicle in the traffic which can be a pain, but that road definitely needs paving,” she said.

Government officials have said milling and paving the road at night would be too expensive. Director of Works officials explained earlier this year that they must be careful with government money, “because the extra money we would spend to do over-time work, we can pave another road.”

Bahamix General Manager Ryan Rahming added: “It would be perfect to deal with this sort of work at night when it’s off peak times, but one of the things we have to keep in mind paving, the lighting situation is different at night, illumination tends to put different shades on the ground at night and you want to be able to see perfectly when laying asphalt so we can maintain levels.”