UBH northbound repairs near completion, southbound being assessed

The biggest patch of highway washed away by flooding on the northbound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway has been repaired. This leaves only minor patches to be completed, and a better flow of traffic in both directions.

At 5 am, employees from the Ministry of Works and representatives from Coosals Construction mobilised on the highway to fix the damaged road.

Police, led by Inspector Gloden from the Freeport Highway Patrol unit, were stationed along the highway directing traffic as people made their way toward the north of the country.

It was obvious to anyone who used the route daily, that the number of people on the highway was significantly reduced, with some commuters claiming they took less than 20 minutes to get from Chaguanas to Port of Spain, a journey that usually takes close to an hour on a Monday at 8 am.

In an interview, shortly before noon today, the Ministry of Works Chief Planning Engineer (Roads) Katherine Badloo Doerga said the northbound lane was expected to be completed by 3 pm.
"We actually just finished work on the biggest patch that was washed away and we finished that in a couple of hours. There are a few smaller patches we are going to work on now and we know that won't take long. The southbound lane still has water so the diversion remains in place," Badloo Doerga said.

The work was being done by Coosal's Group and Manager of Operations Glenn Mahabirsingh told Newsday the work was being done free of charge as part of the company's corporate social responsibility.

"We started coordinating repairs yesterday. What happened is that the wearing course (the upper layer in roadway) delaminated from the base course asphalt so while the damage wasn't very bad, it still needed to be repaired quickly. We expect that once the water runs off of the southbound lane we will get directions from the ministry to do a detailed inspection.