Shedding lighton potholes

THE EDITOR: I refer to Richard Trestrail’s letter of July 5 on the potholes on St Lucian Road in Diego Martin.

Trestrail points out that the very costly repairs carried out by the Ministry of Transport are a tremendous waste of money that the Government does not now have. He wrote that the repaired potholes are in the process of returning to the original and perhaps even worst state.

This secondary deterioration is caused, in my opinion, by what is known as sub-surface degradation, which is caused by water, or any other fluid, washing the fine material out of the road’s sub-base, causing it to fail and loose its compressive strength, followed by the failure of the asphalt topping.

In order to correct this problem the sub-base of the pothole, or any road needing repairs, must be carefully inspected to see if water is seeping into the area and, if found to be so, repairs effected.

Until such time as the engineers come up with a specification for the repair of potholes and the like, the very costly repairs will continue.

I trust that the foregoing sheds a little light on the subject.

TK AUSTIN, Petit Valley

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"Shedding lighton potholes"

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