Guyana’s Highways of Shame

If Guyana’s road network is supposed to be the arteries of a modern nation, then ours are clogged, crumbling, and downright dangerous. From the old streets riddled with potholes to the newly built “highways” that already ride like washboards, the state of our roads is a national disgrace. And the scandal is that tens of billions of taxpayer dollars have been poured into this mess, only for citizens to be left with shoddy, half-baked infrastructure that is costing more in vehicle repairs than the roadworks themselves.

The newly constructed highways were sold to the public as symbols of progress. In reality, they are symbols of waste, fraud, and abuse. The rides are bumpy, the surfaces uneven, and the shoulders either shabbily done or simply left incomplete. This is not just a matter of aesthetics — these flaws chew up tyres, batter suspensions, and wear down vehicles at an alarming rate. Ordinary citizens, taxi drivers, and truck operators are paying for this incompetence in the most direct way possible: through their wallets.

Even the so-called flagship projects fail the most basic test of quality. US Senator Marco Rubio once mockingly referred to Guyana’s “Heroes Highway” as a “concussion road,” and he was not exaggerating. These roads don’t just shake your bones; they shake the public’s confidence in the integrity of government contracting and oversight.

Heads should roll for this. Not one, not two — but every official who signed off on these projects should be held to account. From the engineers who approved inferior work to the ministers who heralded these roads as development miracles, all have a hand in turning Guyana’s infrastructure into a bad joke.

This is not development. This is the magnification of a shanty environment using massive sums of public money. Tens of billions have been spent, yet what we have is a network that will need expensive repairs long before it should. Where was the quality control? Where was the supervision? Where was the political will to demand value for money?

Guyana’s taxpayers deserve roads that last, roads that are safe, and roads that reflect a vision of modernity. Instead, we have been sold asphalt illusions. Until there is real accountability, the “highways” will remain nothing more than monuments to the betrayal of public trust.