High Level Road mayhem morning and evening

Old stagers would recall with nostalgia how motoring along the ‘High Level Road’ (HLR) from Hanwella, through Homagama, Pannipitiya, Maharagama, Navinna, Delkanda, Nugegoda and Kirulapone was sheer bliss – the relatively elevated (high) and wide road with hardly any traffic then was the route of choice for those folk resident in the south-east suburbs of Colombo. Not anymore!

Sadly HLR has morphed into a motorists’ hell (if there was one!) with bumper-to-bumper gridlock much of the time, especially during the morning and evening ‘rush hours’. The lack of functioning traffic signal lights at both Delkanda and Nugegoda junction have added to their woes. And then the cops… the less said the better!

Traffic cops standing and waving at drivers!

Honestly when traffic moves, albeit at snail’s pace, what is the earthly use of ‘traffic cops’ waving their hands at drivers who have to move forward anyway!? Director of Traffic, why don’t you get these ‘jobless cops’ to move the traffic cones to make a third lane in either direction morning and evening along the entire length of HLR?

This is not rocket science as traffic mainly moves in one direction – i.e. towards Colombo at morning rush-hour and then grinds towards Homagama during the evening rush-hour; instead of little 100-metre three-lane traffic that causes another traffic snarl at end of ‘cone induced lane’; need to have a third lane throughout!

The joke that is Nugegoda Flyover Bridge

As a resident living close to the Nugegoda Flyover Bridge, I was privy to what was originally planned according to engineers with earlier blueprint: The Flyover Bridge was to commence from near St. Joseph’s Road and ‘fly-over’ passing St. John’s College, St. Joseph’s Girls School and Anula Vidyalaya and end up at the crest of the hill where presently Prime Lands is constructing an apartment. If this original plan went through, Nugegoda would not be experiencing the daily chaos we see now virtually throughout the day!

I’m reliably informed that the Flyover Bridge at Nugegoda was originally designed for Panadura but due to litigation involving land-owners in Panadura, the powers-that-be in the previous regime took the ill-advised decision of simply ‘planting’ Panadura Flyover Bridge at Nugegoda HLR Junction, very much like a ‘Lego’ set! This useless and flawed ‘Flyover’ vibrates when heavy vehicles ply on it – a disaster waiting to happen! And now to compound the Nugegoda traffic mayhem, some worthy has decided to install two sets of signal lights in front of both St. Joseph’s Girls School and Anula Vidyalaya – both crossings are around 40 metres from each other!

So now motorists have not only to endure the traffic that crawls from Delkanda and snakes its way over the chock-a-block Nugegoda Flyover, they have to grind their teeth when faced with not one, but two sets of signal lights soon after exiting the flyover. And to continue with this sick joke, information is that a concrete centre median is to be built that would effectively lessen the width of the High Level Road still further and would seriously make traffic just grind to a virtual standstill, instead of using red police cones and creating a third lane during ‘rush hour’ – simple common sense seems to elude those responsible!

Elevated pedestrian crossings

Instead of signal lights at pedestrian crossings soon after exiting the fly-over and creating a mega traffic jam, may I suggest that elevated pedestrian crossings be erected to enable school kids and their parents/guardians to safely cross the HLR and let traffic move seamlessly?

Ideally an elevated bridge from Kottawa to Kirulapone

All who use the Southern Expressway are aware that it only takes around 55 minutes to travel from Kottawa to Galle but a whopping 100 minutes from Kirulapone to Kottawa during rush hour – negating the time benefit of using the Expressway! Surely then isn’t it logical to install an elevated toll highway from Kottawa to Kirulapone with ‘entry/exit points’ at Pannipitiya, Maharagama, Delkanda and Nugegoda? The Return-On-Investment (ROI) would prove to be another money-spinner like all the existing expressways as most wish to travel swiftly by paying for it!

Such a proposal if implemented would obviously make a meaningful reduction in travel time from Colombo to Galle – this should be an A1 priority as an effective solution to the daily traffic mayhem along High Level Road a.k.a. ‘High Level Mess Road’!

Dyan Seneviratne

Nugegoda