New Rule Aims to Clear Roads of House Hauls

Ever seen a house being moved down the highway? Well, if you have, you won’t be seeing it during rush hour anymore. The Transport Department is laying down new rules: moving houses can now only happen at night. That’s right, between nine p.m. and five a.m. Why the change? Officials say they’ve been flooded with complaints. These massive hauls have been causing traffic jams, damaging property, and creating serious safety risks, especially during peak hours. So, to keep the roads clear and drivers safe, house-hauling is now strictly a nighttime affair.

 

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport

“ We are trying to find a balancing approach to the situation. We do understand the need for the businesspeople to be able to move their houses from point A to point B, but we also have to understand the need for commuters and users of the highway to be able to use the highway as much as possible without any impediment. And the houses on our highways, during the day, and especially at times during peak hours, certainly renders our commuters and the other road users, to some extent makes them, makes it, inadequate for them to be able to traverses the roadways. And so, we looked at the whole situation. We tried to find a time when we believe that it is going to be less inconvenient to the other road users. We were looking at Sundays only. But again, we did an analysis and we realized that on Sundays the highways are busy because we have people who are coming back from weekend maybe in the south or in the west or from Chetumal or whatever. So we do find that Sundays, especially in the evening time, the highways are extremely busy. So the analysis we did showed that the less or the least traffic is in the evening time or in the nighttime between nine p.m. and four a.m. And so we decided that we were going to allow the houses to be moved on the highways between that time. Again, I know it’s not going to be convenient to everybody. They are going to be those who will still have their negative comments and they’re going to be those who are going to be happy with the move.”