President Irfaan Ali will Thursday evening-April 14 2022 commission the new Road that runs from the Roundabout at Aubrey Barker Street and Mandela Ave to Eccles. The plans for the road and roundabout were in the pipeline for several years going back to when Town and Country Planners Aubrey Barker and associates designed that part of Southern Georgetown known as South Ruimveldt Gardens and Park.
Ruimveldt which is Dutch for open, spacious field had the open spaces and reserves for future development including Highways, Other Roads and Conduits. Over the years the space on which this road and roundabout were built was left as a reserve for such a development as this one. In fact, the planned Sheriff St/Mandela Roadway was supposed to continue in the North/South direction running parallel to the East Bank Public Road. That design would ease traffic congestion on the East Bank and allow for traffic to move between the East Bank and East Coast without passing through Georgetown, a belt type by-pass system.
Over the years with the installation of the Demerara Harbour Bridge and the development of Housing Schemes on the East and West Banks of the Demerara River, traffic congestion became a serious challenge. The widening of the East Bank Public Road allowed for more traffic but did not ease the ease the congestion between Georgetown and Diamond.
The new road from Aubrey Barker Street/ Mandela Roundabout to Eccles is expected to give commuters a third option to get into or out of the City or even around it. Before this roundabout and road, Commuters had two options. These were funneled from the same east bank road at the fork known as Rahaman’s Turn that took commuters to and from the city proper or around it.
Guyana continues to be primed for infrastructural development that will see decades old macro and more recent plans becoming reality.