Harbour Road Closure To Continue On Sunday
As many people noticed, there were extensive traffic delays in Paget today, and this evening the Ministry of Public Works said there is a road closure on Harbour Road, which will continue until approximately midday on Sunday [June 12], and then parts of Harbour Road will have single lane traffic until approximately July 3rd.
In a statement issued at just past 11.00pm this evening, the Ministry of Public Works said they wish to “inform motorists that there is currently a road closure in place on Harbour Road, Paget, near the lower ferry service stop.
“The road closure is necessary to allow the removal of an old Bermuda roof at 104 Harbour Road. The work is necessary as this very old roof has been assessed and found to be in danger of collapse such as to represent a danger to users of Harbour Road.
“The road closure began on Saturday 11th June, 2016 and will continue until approximately midday on Sunday 12th June, 2016.
“During this time, Harbour Road will be closed to traffic from 104 Harbour Road to the lower ferry stop site except for local residents requiring access around this work site.
“All traffic travelling along Harbour Road in a westerly direction from the city of Hamilton will be detoured towards Lover Lane and all traffic traveling from the west end of the Island along Harbour Road will be detoured towards Chapel Road during the road closure period.
“It is anticipated the roof removal will be completed by midday on Sunday 12th June, then Harbour Road will operate as single lane use under traffic control from Valley Road to the lower ferry stop.
“The single lane traffic use will be required until approximately July 3rd 2016 to allow the new roof to be reconstructed.
“Traffic will be under traffic signal control during non-peak traffic times and will be under STOP and GO boards during peak traffic times.
“Motorists are asked to use the detour routes posted along Harbour Road to avoid any traffic delays on this section of roadway.
“The Ministry would like to encourage the full cooperation of the motoring public and apologizes for any inconvenience caused by these essential works.”
I have the 1st comment. Yes!
The first comment is the sneakiest comment .
Who’s the Public Works Minister? We understand work has to be performed for safety, but please give the Bermuda Public advance notice. That traffic was the worst I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!
Meaning what JohnBoy.
So are they gonna close de road in Somerset for de green building by Navy field, North Shore Road for Clay House Inn and Crow Lane for de wall thats falling.
This happened today and it was without wide notice…if I didn’t know the secret ways my groceries would have been ruined.
Please …who is responsible for this aborishion of lawful traverse?
There was signs on the road 2 days before..
The traffic problem was because another house decided to do a huge road work, setting up their iwn sign so the flow was disturbed.
Thank you for your oatience. Llola
But I wasn’t using Habour road!!! Where was the notice to the public BEFORE 11PM on Saturday? This should have been in the media, etc. Children and families missed recitals, ambulances had horrible times getting thru traffic!
Signs don’t stop traffic, barricades do! Who put up the barricades?!?
The barricades were put up by lower ferry by permit holders to do so..
This permit issued by government.
Apologies but it was necessary..
The barricade at chapel road had no oermit to do so.
It was put up by another company…
I’m second…
It is sad that one private home can inconvenience the whole island speaks to power and influence.
@ sad…stop hating…numerous workers are being employed there…directly and indirectly contributing to the economy of the island. Yah selfish!
They ever heard about working at night? This is ridiculous, thank your planning department for making a job convenient for the owner/contractor whilst inconveniencing the whole island. Also the road was blocked at the house 1/4 mile west where they have excavated huge trenches in the road so it was an absolute clusterf@*k all day, drone footage of this mess would have been crazy. Noone was directing traffic anywhere, and why is it announced after the worst day.
I think it speaks to safety, sounds as though there was a risk the roof might have slipped and harmed road users
“I think”, “sounds as though” and “might have”, sounds definitive.
Or just a sensible concern for people’s safety.
What a stupid comment! You wouldn’t be very happy would you if half a roof fell on top of your car whilst you were driving past?
Would you rather the roof of the home collapsed onto your car while driving past? This is nothing to do with power and influence, it is about safety. ..
If I owned that same house on Harbour Rd and hired my personal construction team, I would not been given a permit to inconvenience practically the whole Island. It’s definately who u are to get the privilege.
What whole island. what is really bad is the amount of people that drove around the signs and caused issues. NOT to mention the number of people that drove through PRIVE ROAD ESTATES and acted like it a public road. Private roads are paid for and maintained by the home owners. Did I mention no thought to speed for control pumps. People even moved signs so that could pass and then b!&@hed when could get though (I saw that)not hear say)
It took a year and a half to get to this point of roof remomoval. You sound as if a piece of roof slate had already knocked you in your head. Get over yourself
You got some crust!!! You block up roads causing horrendous traffic without warning, and you are being rude to those who complain? Who on earth do you think you are?
Inconsiderate people who don’t think closing one of 3 roads would cause an issue. Have you never seen how traffic is when there is an accident on Harbour road?!? It affects all the roads leading west! Privilege at it’s best right here.
A plague on your dang house, roof and all!
Again..there was no choice. no choice no choice.
Hope you never have a real aggravation to deal with.
I certainly understand your frustration. I got caught up in all of that too yesterday. It really highlighted the amount of vehicles we have on the road these days. However, I think your swipe of ‘one private home causing inconvenience’ speaking to power and influence was weird. What practical suggestions would you make for them given their need to have their roof replaced… on a house built right on one of the 3 main roads going west?
Work at night firstly, within the confines of the said properties’ parking area a little at a time by hand then load one truck at a time? It more speaks to planning dept. not thinking. There are 2 roads going west, one yesterday, bottlenecked at the Paget stop lights.
Cannot work at night on a 300 yr old roof. Just to dangerous. For all cocerned.
Thanks for suggestion. Though.
Lets talk about something we can do something sbout..this ussue is padt.
You are wayyy off base. Check your facts. This home was damaged in hurricane fay and
The roof was sliding into the road. It had to be done for public safety. The house was 300 years okd ouse
Power??? Not at all . A. Big house has nothing to do with what is inside. .
Better that than one roof slide into the road and kill someone..
It speaks of responsibility. Power? You must be kidding!!
Can you at least tell us first?
If the roof fell into the road the SAME complainers would have an issue….As a matter of safety the roof HAD to come off. The house is located on the side of the road, therefore the machine used to dissemble the roof as there is no yard space. There WAS a traffic advisory and by mid day there were complaints of traffic delays so if you had plans for later on in the day it would have made sense to move just a little bit earlier just in case. I believe in safety FIRST and that building was becoming unsafe. I wish the passion displayed over a traffic convenience was the same amount of passion put forward to all the MAJOR BS that’s happening on this island but yet we remain SILENT…..Just MY (Keyword “MY”) opinion.
Where was the traffic advisory?!? I listen to the radio news daily and heard NOTHING! I rarely use Harbour road, so wouldn’t see those signs mentioned.
Read the signs
Did!
Today was a bloody disgrace, poor notice to the public and an absolute pain for 1000s of people.
We had plenty of notice. Although this my have happened they should ensure there are road side signs clearly warning. But it was a suprise as to no. of cars on the road.
Only harbour road users would have had notice. But guess what? when harbour road is closed the other roads are affected. Should have made a public notice!
We eed less huge status cars on the road..
That is clear.
I don’t know if I have ever seen traffic like this, it was INSANE!!! whoever ok’d this needs to be fired..For one house? Let me try and pull a stunt like this the Gov’t would laugh at me.
Don’t hold your breath.
The irganization for one house was fine. Another house up the road chose to set up their own road construction. Who approved this for that day?
No One! Check your facts.
Then stp whining and talk to government.
There was no other option.
This is such crud that one home can alter the entire island’s flow. Guess you can do what you please when you have money
Imagine if the roof fell onto the road and stopped all traffic flow until it was cleared !
Actually no money. So dream on…
Entire island. Really.
Exaggeration..a national product.
Put the job out to a private company and it will be done within a week. QED
Obviouly you do not know much about building or 300 year old houses.
The roof was removed in record time.bsafely, and cleanly!!
Hats off to the contractors! Brilliant job.
Ok I understand this work needs to be done – but it would have been nice to have this warning on Friday – we have social media now and that really would have helped. Social Media seems to work for everything else so why not this.
Exactly! Tell the public so we know!
Ask government?
They should have disabled the traffic lights and had police controlling the flow of traffic to better accommodate the disparity between different directions of traffic. Yes….a wee bit notice would be nice too.
What should have happened ? Wait until the roof collapsed? . Too all the negative commenters – what would have been your solution ?
1. Do it from midnight until 6am. Light up the house with portable lights. The owner of the house would probably have to pay triple time to get it done. Tough. Such is the choice THEY made in buying that house.
2. If that is not possible then re program the Paget traffic lights for much heavier traffic and have the police actually assisting with flow rather than standing around at barricades.
One house turning the traffic into that mess yesterday was unacceptable.
I had a business to run and was caught up in trying to get in and out of Hamilton 3 times due to various things that happened. It was a zoo and it could have been avoided.
Exactly, and White Sands Road could have been opened to help alleviate the bottleneck, but hey we have geniuses planning this stuff, we are just complainers who don’t care for “public safety”. The bellied -out walls on Valley Road are more likely to collapse (one at Buena Vista already did), a dangerous wall sign been there so long they threw it down the marsh. Analytical thinking is not “negative” all you sheeple living in fear.
Actually living in reality. Best to be quiet when one has no idea what they are talking about..
We can tell you are an expert.
A 300 yesr okd house cannot be disabled at night. Please be serious. It was very dangerous as it was.
And was done verry verry fast by an excellent crew.
STUPID
Thanks to inform us after stupid
A main road is shut down and we choke our flow of traffic generating stress, impatience and intolerance. Public Relations in advance of a situation like this is suggested in addition to the posting in our local media.
So many people impacted by one action – we are all connected.
Wow!!! A little late dont we think… This information would have been nice, I dont know say… Friday!?
It was given wednesday.
Information was put out wed.
This was not a minor inconvenience it was major.
I had family late for a wedding Andy reception because of the hour long wait in traffic.
It was very vexing to sit in traffic with no understanding why only to find out it was because a house on Harbor Road was getting a roof fixed.
No I am not saying this is not important, it should not however inconvenience a whole island.
How and why would Department of Works and Engineering allow this as it had such far reaching effects on the island.
Also for that Department to assume taking a notice out in the print media was enough just speaks to the lack of understanding of communication in this age.
Police should have been posted at the stop lights as there was critical bottle necking in that area with people jumping the light.
Question remains,? How does someone apply for a permit to close the street (major street) who gives permission and why? And who are the Government departments and officials that were notified? Did Police know? Did first responders know so they could make alternative routes?
Very interesting times
Wait, you are supposed to just nod agree and be thankful they kept us safe. Get back in lock-step.
A police presence was definitely required. The traffic wasn’t moving at all for very long periods of time. Hope its sorted by Monday. If it isn’t loads of people will be very late for work.
We had an important event too…but knew if this long in advance. On the day when the delays seemed much worse than expected we received calls and emails warning so were able to set off much earlier and arrived on time. No problem. These things happen. I guess doing the work on a Sunday may be lightwr on traffic but if it over runs it would be worse. Chill.
Well, the roof coukd have slid into the road and killed someone.?
This was not a fix but a drastic urgent repair..removal.
A bunch of complainers. There are places where the whole road gets shut down for miles & traffic is led through in convoy one way at a time. Delays can easily be half an hour.
Be thankful that W&E is not doing the job. It would be taking months to complete.
Thank you to the person who had the sense to think of the public safety. People would have had the experience if there was accident and the road was closed.
Ok so this inconvenience was for our safety I get that but were there not any police officers around that could have controlled the traffic it’s crazy how you don’t see the police but let there be an incident they come out of the office. Don’t get me wrong I highly commend the job some of them do but this was not necessary at all. They should have closed that section, not let people go as far as Lovers Lane then make them divert them back to middle road because those arteries they created were part of the problem, we were being considerate by letting them out and several cars at a time which slowed the main flow. Most of us were irritated but patient because we thought it was an accident not a house renovation.
I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to offend/ upset. No worries. Clearly ignorance is bliss. I had no idea.
I called the Police station to ask if they could at least have traffic directed at middle rd & lovers lane. Was told they had no one available ? and to be patient!
I would like to make a suggestion, a one way lane during rush hour would be a lot more logical.
That was imposdible. Do you people not understand. .nthe whole roof came off..uh..sliding slate into the road, trucks to remove it..and it was done very quickly. It required 2 lanes
But it is one lane now, until july. So your thought not all bad.
Just where were the police???…..no sign of them the entire time when they could have at least assisted the traffic coming out of Lover’s Lane onto Middle Road. What about people who were trying to get to the airport or the hospital?
There was a small bit of advance notice coming out on Friday about the roof so the police could have arranged to take some action.
Another separate concern of the day was City Hall car park was closed at the same time as Front Street was closed due to the Queen’s Birthday parade. Who is in charge of the coordination or rather lack of coordination?
Advance notice. Wednesday!
Us who had been tied up in this mess for hours yesterday, might of been eased had their been a sighting of ONE police officer helping with this, one of the major problems was at Lovers Lane, once you got through the stoplights, people coming up from Harbour road at the spot where the road was officially closed, were jamming up traffic once you got through the lights. At one of the trickiest entrances, at the busiest hill in Paget, a Police Officer directing traffic would of made things flow. The road needed to be closed, as safety for all, but come on, some forward thinking would of been appreciated.
Apparently suggesting common sense solutions is negativity and considered complaining by the enlightened among us, don’t bother.
We should be aware 70 percent of most Bermudian homes are near road sides. Can you imagine if everyone decided to fix their homes and inconvenience the whole island.
The arguement around what would happen if something fell on someone’s car is crazy as we all should maintain our homes thus ensuring everyone does not suffer.
It would be understandable during a hurricane or storm.
I know of a few people who missed planes because of this mess.
It is sick and angering to listen to those who assume it was ok and it should be tolerated. When that same community complains when local cruise boats go across playing music at night.
Would blocking off a street be ok if it was on Middle Road or Front Street.
They would never do that for a home on Paraons Road.
This home is not near the road . It is ON the road.
The roof was not fixed. It was dismantled on record time for safety.
Poor goverment notice has nothing to do with those owners or contractors
Look further up the road for the root of the problem.
A private residence wadsetting up their own personal road block.
No control.
Nothing to do with government.
Purely selfish and inconsiderstef
,
,
Is this your house llola ?
Since you want to be so accurate, if the house was ON the road, there would be no road there. House is next to the road.
Not really..
Measure it if you like.hey why not think about the people in the usa who died this weekend and dtop nitpicking. .. Pathetic.
Iwe all should maintain our homes??
Exactly what was being done!!
Anne you missing the point
Smh at least tell the public first so we all know
Public was told..
Interesting that W&E are worried about public safety. What about the green building on Somerset Road that has open beams or the Clayhouse Inn? Ready to collapse. I have warned W&E before (mainly about derelic boats) that if a child plays in one of these structures or on boats that is partially sunk and they die, it will be on Cannonier, Baron, Dunkleys conscience as something should have been done ages ago.
After months of complaining they finally moved the 2 sunken sailboats out of Mangrove Bay.
What can you expect? These are the same people that run the government. Planning is a four letter word! The roof has to be done. Safety is first. But planning is also required. This ” everything in isolation” attitude isnot working ,we are all connected. Hire proper management and get rid of your cousin who needs a job ..that goes for permanent secretary ‘s too!!!!!
Any excuse to complain.
Any excuse not to care about other people’s lives.
Thank God Ewart lives on South Shore road.
If he lived der he wood haiv bloyne dee dam ting hup…………..
Happy Sunday.
Follow ICS(Island Construction Services) on Facebook and Instagram. From now on we will let the public know via social media for any road work going on that we will be completing. Hopefully this will help so the public can plan around it. Sorry for any inconvenience! – ICS staff.
Little late but thanks. Would you guys like to hire a logistics coordination consultant? I could be convinced to come out of retirement for the right price.
The work to the house on Harbour Road just after Newstead going East from West has been Real issue for motorist especially during rush hour this work has taken forever and we have all been patient it now needs to wrap up its been too long to inconvenience the public any more move on
Agreed.
And it has a long way to go.
No further comment.
Disgusted
Nobody is saying that this should have waited until the roof collapsed. People are not happy that 1. There clearly wasn’t effective communication with the public and enough advance notice given and 2. Was there any consideration given to hiring off duty police offices to assist and direct traffic at the other junctions that became blocked? People must remember that this is a private project and the cost of proper traffic direction should have been built into the cost…
The closed signs were still posted on Harbour Road at 1.45pm today.
What if you don’t take harbour road? This affected South shore and Middle Road too. The lack of insight is incredible!
Ignore Mike Hinds comments for a few days.
Ignore Mike Hind for a few days then.
Well I am trying to make suggestions and I have more but hey what do i know.
Bermudians make a big deal out of nothing… Let’s hope and pray that we don’t get hit by a major hurricane or two this season or our lights be put out of service for days, weeks or months. Then what? At least you all made it home a little later then usual, but you made it. Why your not blowing it on your government about the lower fuel prices that the rest of the world is enjoying due to the drop in oil prices. Let alone more money will be coming out of your wages in a few months for a pension you might not get in the next 5 or 10 years down the road. You were waiting in that traffic jam for a reason. You should have wound up your windows, turned on your audio player and listen to your favorite tunes and relaxed a little. Oh wait, you don’t know how to do that.. Oh well.. Do what you do best and complain about the things you can’t change.
I’m going back to work.. Enjoy.
Brilliant
Thank you
Aaaahhh shutup!
Isn’t he having the wires put underground so that his view isn’t obstructed. I doubt his “roof is about to collapse.” Bermudians fall for the spin on both sides of the coin. Very naive!
No that’s just up the road.
The only spin appears to be the one you are trying to create.
There is a house close to lower ferry that is having its roof replaced. This is clearly evident. I drove by it this morning. It has no roof. This is the project that resulted in the road closure.
There is a second house, closer to Chapel Rd, which is having some cables buried. This second house took advantage of the road being closed on Saturday and Sunday to perform the trenching work.
This house did do some road dredging a few weeks ago, which brought Harbour Rd down to one lane. That small section of work wreaked havoc on traffic, so their doing this work while the road was being closed anyway, makes perfect sense. No doubt this cost them and arm and a leg in overtime pay, however I suspect they can afford it. Don’t take my word for it….take a drive down Harbour Rd and confirm all this for yourself.
Actually the house doing the cabling in the street has been disrupting traffic for some time now on and off, the extra trenching made saturday worse.
How could their trenching work over the weekend make traffic worse…the road was closed anyway?
The only people who were impacted in any incremental way are those who live in between these two properties.
Yes, I agree they have been disrupting traffic to some extent for some time. Looking forward to that project being done.
I’m hoping that anyone contemplating work on that stretch of road takes advantage of the one lane closure and does it now.
People tried to drive down Valley Road to go east and had to turn around and come back up the one way for a good portion of the day because both sides were blocked, and traffic was going (forward and reverse over and over) through Highwood/Westwood lane and Valley Road, from both Harbor and middle Roads trying to find a way around no one was directing so it was obviously worse. The patched road surface at the westerly location is atrocious, an eyesore and embarrassment but wait until you see the new driveway.
I agree with what you are saying but that’s a traffic control issue. Once you’re on Harbour Rd going east past Chapel you’re pretty much committed until Lovers Lane. You can cut though Highwood I guess but that would rarely be someone’s normal route. Plus isn’t that a private road? So closing the road at Chapel makes sense even if the main job was at Lower Ferry.
The patch work is poor and is both an eyesore and hazard. There are quite a few accidents around that bend on the best of days. Riding a bike on bad patch work, sand and other debris is dangerous. I can see now that they are regularly washing the road off. If I was to lay blame for this it would be primarily with the construction company. That being said…money talks and the owners who are cutting the checks can certainly influence their behavior.
That would be extra trencing being done with no permit!
Have you notified the authorities?
That house putting the wires underground is a half mile away fron the house doinfg roof repair.. No connection .
Also no right to have closed the road fir their benefit.msome peope!!
Get a life it was a busy weekend to fix a stupid roof
Lets move on shall we. There are some real problems in the world.