-Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
A few motorists travelling along phase 1a of Highway 2000. This section is a part of the Old Harbour bypass where motorists now have to pay a toll.
Teino Evans and John Myers, Staff Reporters
PENNY-PINCHING MOTORISTS have changed their routes to escape toll charges on the newly opened Old Harbour bypass.
This has resulted in major congestion and traffic pile-ups for the town of Old Harbour.
Both the police and business- people in Old Harbour have confirmed that the congestion which The Sunday Gleaner witnessed Friday and up to yesterday had developed since the implementation of the toll system.
Meanwhile the toll authorities say that the number of moto-rists traversing the newly constructed multimillion-dollar bypass continues to surpass their expectations.
When The Sunday Gleaner visited the Old Harbour bypass (toll road) and the alternative route of the Old Harbour main road, which runs through the town, there was a significant difference in the number of vehicles plying both routes. Relatively few vehicles were being driven along the bypass, while the traffic build-up inundated the stretch of road leading through the town. A feature which became almost non-existent when the highway was a freeway, bumper to bumper traffic was seen inching its way on the narrow main road in the town, especially during peak hours.
Reports out of the Traffic Division of the Old Harbour Police Station are that the majority of the motorists have resorted to using the original route, through the town, as many refuse to pay toll charges to arrive at their destinations.
"There has been an increase in traffic pile-up... more than the ordinary," Constable Fitzroy Walters of the Old Harbour Police Traffic Department said of the old thoroughfare. "In the mornings, the situation is not that bad, but during the day, there is definitely a pile-up of traffic."
