Government Should Abandon Its Highway Project And

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GROUP PROJECT: Government should abandon its highway project and instead focus on building causeways. COURSE: FUNDAMENTALS OF WRITING Although a small country, Trinidad and Tobago has a developed infrastructure, revolving around its oil and gas industries as well as a mainstream manufacturing sector. There are 8,320 kilometers (5,158 miles) of roads, half of them paved, with main routes covered by four lane highways. Even so, traffic congestion has been a problem since the boom period of the 1970s and continues to plague many road users. In responding to the nation’s call for better road infrastructure, the government has embarked on a massive highway construction programme, the most expensive being the proposed San Fernando to La Brea highway at a cost of TT$7.2 billion dollars. Notwithstanding the fact that one hundred percent of the present road network is inland, there has been a proposal submitted to the government for the construction of a causeway as a method of complimenting the present Chaguaramus peninsula’s main access road which presently does not support its current usage. A causeway, in modern usage and according to Wikipedia is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland. Despite the fact that an alternative to inland road construction has been presented, the government should not abandon its present highway project since construction of causeways can have a devastating impact on the environment. In addition, the cost of construction of causeways linking major towns in Trinidad and Tobago is expected to be considerably higher that what is estimated for the inland highway. In constructing a causeway some of the ways it can negatively impact the environment include costal erosion, destruction of marine life and destruction of the fishing industry. For example causeways affect currents and may

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