THE BUSIEST SECTION of Bridgetown will be closed from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. to vehicular traffic next week Saturday, as the first Republic Bank City Fest and Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes signals the official start of Crop Over.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce yesterday told Barbadians and visitors coming to enjoy the 40th annual festival that no vehicular traffic, except emergency vehicles, will be permitted on Broad Street, the Wharf Road and the environs of the Inner Basin, as the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) makes the area a pedestrian zone for 12 hours.
“We have examined all alternatives and have come up with the best approach to managing traffic on that particular day. During the week, police will inform of closures of certain streets and regulations in the media. The restrictions of traffic in the City does not mean that you should not attend the event,” Boyce said at the RBPF headquarters on Roebuck Street, the City yesterday.
He said the event, produced by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), would include a parade between 3 and 5 p.m. from the General Post Office to Heroes Square.
Traffic coming from the east will be allowed to flow from Highway 7 onto Bay Street and along Independence Square but may not turn onto the Charles Duncan Oneale Bridge, while those coming from St Michael’s Row will turn onto Spry Street, those from Spring Garden may go not farther than Hart Street.
Those coming from Tudor Street must turn right and go on a temporary one-way route to Hart Street.
“Broad Street from its junction with Cowell Street to its junctions with High Street and Trafalgar Street will be closed, while the Wharf Road from its junction with Bridge Street to its junction with Hincks Street and Prince Alfred Street will be closed from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” Boyce said, noting that taxis will be accessible at Niles and Rickett streets.
Wayside vending will also be a feature of City Fest, said NCF senior business development officer Alison Sealy-Smith.
“We were quite sensitive to the fact that we want to give as many opportunities to our vendors as possible and,at the same time, privilege to those already in town. We think we’ve been able to maintain that balance by controlling the number and the type of vending spaces that have been made available to entrepreneurs, and we’ve also encouraged existing businesses in Bridgetown to come out of their stores and onto the street,” said Sealy-Smith.
Transport Board shuttle services will be provided from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s playing field, Weymouth ‘B’ and Deacons pasture.
(RJ)
