BAPE notes the decision by the Ministry of Public Works to proceed with the 100 million dollar “solution” to the national traffic problem in the form of the construction of Flyovers at selected ABC highway roundabouts.

This organisation believes that such highly complex and expensive decisions should only be made after wide public ventilation of the various options. This would avoid some of the pitfalls that have obviously trapped previous projects. Many of these have been ineffective, wasteful, abandoned, discarded or just quietly forgotten.

As we have been saying time and again, we now live in a complex world where specialized engineering expertise is vital in analyzing issues and selecting the most effective solutions while at the same time effectively selling the various publics on the background so as to achieve general buy-in. Occasionally, leaders may be required to make snap decisions, but our habit of waiting until an issue becomes a crisis after fifteen years in gestation and then rushing to snap decisions is unforgivable. 

BAPE continues to find it most interesting that our offer of input on national matters where informed engineering expertise is needed continues to be ignored by authorities. Even so, BAPE is only one of many professional organizations.  Across the world it is a common practice for public consultations to be undertaken where solutions to such important matters as physical infrastructural development are being sought..  Instead, Barbadians are forced to give their views in anonymity on radio call call-in programmes
It may well be that in the case of the proposed flyovers, excellent engineering consultations have been undertaken. Indeed flyovers could well be a realistic solution. However some questions that immediately come to mind are as follows:

• Is the traffic congestion problem a feature only of the ABC highway? If not, how will the flyovers assist in the other areas of congestion?
• Even if the problem is addressed on the highway by the installation of the flyovers what will be the consequence for other potential bottlenecks? I.e. would this not merely transfer the choke points from the highway to other parts of the highway system?
• Barbados is in the business of selling its attractiveness and natural beauty. Where in the world have the proponents of this proposal seen attractive flyovers apart from artist’s impressions or doctored photographs?
• There are a number of more complex issues that come to mind, but the basic questions above makes the point.

 It is time for a complete review of our approach to national decision-making in Barbados. Surely we have made enough errors in Garbage disposal, Water resource management, Education, Sewerage, QEH management, Agriculture and other areas to recognize that we need to do something differently.

The challenge of Traffic congestion is not unique to Barbados. Numerous countries, some of which we are seeking to emulate in terms of National Development, have successfully dealt with this challenge. The most obvious solution applied has been the development of a reliable and efficient public transport system. To the extent that we are unable to successfully manage to accomplish this, then it brings to question even more fundamental questions of management competencies that needs to be addressed.

BAPE is saying that such complex management decisions cannot be made successfully in this modern technological world without significant enlightened engineering inputs. If we continue to ignore this reality, then the certainty of that statement boldly emblazoned across the stage at BWU Headquarters, Solidarity House, which explains the consequences of a lack of vision will continue to plague us all…


Lt. Col Trevor Browne
President
BAPE