CMC redesigns city to face heavy traffic flow

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Driving a vehicle through the congested roads in Colombo city appeared to be the most difficult task faced by motorists as the city road network has not been redesigned to cater to the current requirements.

This situation has created a panic situation in some of the streets in the city creating heavy traffic congestion during rush hours and even causing many road accidents.

It was after the introduction of the uniflow traffic system in some sections of the roads in Colombo, that traffic congestion was aggravated in some of the roads although the uniflow system was effective in some roads.

The prime responsibility of removing those bottleneck areas that stand as an obstacle in the system lies with Colombo Municipal Council.

Step by step the Colombo Municipal Council, has taken smooth action to rehabilitate and redesign the city roundabouts and junctions to cater to the new traffic system of the city while some dangerous roundabouts remain untouched without being brought to the notice of the relevant authorities.

The redesigning of the roundabout in front of Red Cross building on Dharmapala Mawatha and Marcus

Fernando Mawatha adjacent to Public Library is the latest stretch of road that is being developed to cater to the uniflow traffic system in the city.

"Today road users are on the increase. Many of the roundabouts in the city were constructed twenty years ago when there was less traffic flow in the Colombo city", the City Chief Administrator Omar Kamil said describing the programme of the CMC.

"With the passage of time vehicular movement doubled. Therefore, necessary adjustments have to be made to roundabouts to facilitate the movement of traffic. Otherwise people will be caught up in traffic and not be able to keep to their time schedule", Kamil added.

To cater to this situation the CMC had to readjust the roads and roundabouts.

"While giving due consideration to the greenery and the beautification in the city we also have to give attention to facilitate the smooth flow of increasing number of passenger buses, tri-shaws and also motorcycles", he added.

It is not possible on a short term basis to widen roads by acquiring lands adjoining other than areas where there is a bottleneck. But small changes in shaving of corners and the resurfacing of the intersections and the removal of any obstructions along the roads will help traffic movement and reduce wastage of man hours lost when people are held up in traffic.

"When the uniflow traffic system was introduced a few years back the Colombo Municipal Council was responsible for the adjustment and redesigning of the road network to facilitate the uniflow system of traffic", he said.

"We found out that certain roundabouts needed to be reduced insize. Therefore, we started to reduce the roundabout sizes starting it from Horton Place roundabout", Kamil said.

With the redesigning of the Horton Place roundabout it facilitated the faster movement of traffic in all direction. With the successful implementation of the Horton Place roundabout the Flower Road roundabout located close to the Royal College and Thurstan College which was not serving the purpose in view of the uniflow system was removed.

"We decided to remove the roundabout near Royal College after we were informed by the Police that a large number of accidents were reported", he said.

The dangerous roundabout at the Independence Avenue

Motorists get confused when they enter Guildford Crescent from Independence Avenue crossing the Reid Avenue

With the removal of this roundabout the traffic congestion in that area was reduced drastically.

"Now there is no backflow of traffic on this road. Earlier, upto Thurstan road junction there was a backflow of traffic due to congestion created due to this roundabout", he said.

Explaining about their latest redesigning of the Maracas Fernando Mawatha, he said that the CMC is developing the road as a model road.

"Thereafter, we decided to rehabilitate and redesign the Marcus Fernando Mawatha and redesign the road with a view to broaden the road to facilitate the flow of traffic since a large number of vehicles ply in this stretch in the afternoon and in the late evening", he added.

By the removal of the centremediums we extend the number of lanes from four to six. At the same time the CMC designed the back stretch of the road to accommodate a decorative foot walk, and a cycle track to run round the Viharamahadevi Park.

"We were able to do this by pushing back the fence, of the public library and the premises around the park about three meters away.

We are now accommodating some flower troughs in order to landscape that area", he said.

In addition to this the CMC also plans to have a decorative guard rails to discipline the pedestrians to walk along the footwalk while also having pedestrian crossing with push buttons, lighting for the safety of the pedestrians.

"The roundabouts got redesigned and would be landscaped so that the area will be beautified.

The entire road stretch along the Dharmapala Mawatha has been rehabilitated with relaying of asphalt and replacing gullies alongside the road to drain out the rain water into the side drains", he explained.

"To make this project a success we received the assistance of the Ex-servicemen Association to use the area adjoining to the War Memorial, at the Viharamahadevi park permitting people to use as a place of relaxation", he said.

The ex-Servicemen Association also agreed to finance some of the expenses to install new gates to the entrance.

We also have done a new lighting system and some other decorative lighting features are being installed.The new designing of the Marcus Fernando Mawatha will certainly help reduce accidents and to discipline motorists.

In addition the CMC is also planning to redesign the Havelock Road W.A. Silva Mawatha in Wellawatta as new junction to remove the bottlenecks.

"The Lake House roundabout has to be reduced in size. If we reduce the size of the roundabout, we can have some more lanes to accommodate the movement of vehicles", he said.

"Like these roundabouts we are also trying to streamline vehicle parking in the city as motorists have started parking their vehicles without any concern about the flow of traffic after the opening of some roads which were closed for years", he said.

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[ Swift action, the need of the hour]

With the introduction of the uniflow of traffic along Reid Avenue the roundabout on the Independence Avenue close to Cinnamon Gardens Police station has become a dangerous spot for the motorists as there is no proper control of traffic on that roundabout.

The vehicles coming from Independence Avenue are at a risk when they enter the Reid Avenue and Maitland Crescent as there is no restriction of vehicular traffic passing this roundabout.

Specially buses coming along Independence Avenue from Albert Crescent and Russian Centre enter the Reid Avenue passing the roundabout blocking the free movement of traffic flow from the Independence Square with the hope of entering Reid Avenue and Maitaland Crescent.

Even the motorists coming from the Independence Square get struck in the mid of the road close to Cinnamon Garden Police station when they try to enter Guildford Crescent crossing the Reid Avenue as vehicular traffic coming along the Independence Avenue from the Russian Centre direction are allowed to enter Reid Avenue from both sides of the roundabout creating a tricky situation for motorists.

"This is a very dangerous situation for motorists especially during the night as motorists drive fast in the night when there is no traffic congestion.

This situation leads to a large number of road accidents even during the day, a motorist who regularly passes this roundabout told the Sunday Observer.

When this situation was brought to the notice of the Colombo Chief City Administrator Omar Kamil, he promised to bring to the notice of the Traffic Management Department of the CMC to take immediate action to rectify the situation.

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