This week Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário, presented us with his own version of Churchill’s famous ‘blood, sweat and tears’ speech, promising us that the city’s traffic will soon be “complete chaos” as more and more construction works are set to advance.
Secretary Rosario also complained that residents usually contradictorily complain they want construction projects done as fast as possible, to then complain that there are too many constructions at the same time.
However, he left out the main complaint, which is mainly the why for several of such projects.
Let’s take as an example, the project to build a pedestrian flyover at the Avenida de Guimarães in Taipa, a project that occupied the area’s main avenues for quite a while.
Was crossing the street in that area so cumbersome that it requested a huge flyover in the area, that took MOP400 million and almost two years to complete?
Putting aside that several projects were delayed by the pandemic from last year to 2021, local authorities have also allocated some MOP18.5 billion for infrastructure projects this year as part of efforts to boost the local economy out of its pandemic downturn.
So yes, there shall be traffic jams. If the unsuspecting reader was wondering “how can there be more?” there can always be more.
According to the Transport Bureau, some 363 road works are planned for this year, with 55 large scale works covering the city’s main avenues, from extensions works for the Light Rapid Transit line system and the fourth Macau-Taipa Bridge, to works to replace or install drainage pipes, energy supply cables or natural gas pipes.
So if you regularly cross one of the city’s bridges and main avenues for commute between Macau and Taipa, for this year maybe you would be better served to leave the car or motorbike at home and use a Macau Cruises tourist tour to maybe arrive on time for work.
Or possibly take a flight from the Macau International Airport to Zhuhai and return via the Gongbei Border to reach the Macau peninsula. Possibilities abound.
[MNA Editor-in-Chief]
