Better approach to road maintenance needed

The steep slopes of Cumberland Hill give way at its peak to commanding views of the Diego Martin and Maraval valleys and beyond.

That summit is crowned with a growing installation of important transmission facilities for TT's broadcast houses, alongside those used by state agencies, which have based critical national security radio systems there.

It's astonishing then, to understand that for years, the Government has turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of the TT Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) to do necessary repairs to the single road that allows access to the transmission site.

After a first phase of remedial works done in July 2019, responsibility for managing the critical site continues to bounce between the Diego Martin Regional Corporation and the Telecommunications Authority.

The DMRC claims it doesn't have the funds to spend on the estimated $2 million to improve access, and TATT has formed a special committee to consider the problem.

That's left the TTPBA to do patchwork repairs – which have now crumbled under the torrents that brought a landslide down on the roadway on Tuesday. While talk rambled on about the state of Cumberland Hill, rain remorselessly destroyed the road, leaving it impassable.

It's far from the only instance of roads serving a small area to face collapse in the face of increasingly destructive flooding and institutional neglect.

In October, Golden Grove Road in Arouca, a major thoroughfare for traffic in the east, was left impassable after floods damaged a bridge over the Arouca River.

Last week, landslips on Penal Rock Road after heavy rain threatened to cut off Santa Maria Village.

The list of road collapses related to rain, neglect or poor construction has been steady and consistent.

When the Southern Main Road in Coromandel Village collapsed in October 2017, it almost severed access to Cedros. Cars had to creep by on the shoulder, and no heavy vehicles could pass until the road was repaired.

A section of Garth Road in Williamsville collapsed suddenly in October 2018, stranding 4,000 residents and triggering protests.

Landslips on Mandingo Road in August 2019 meant commuters had to make lengthy detours to reach Princes Town and San Fernando.

The threat to essential communications continuity at Cumberland Hill underlines the importance of a greater commitment to a formal state response to these continuing minor and major disruptions of access roads that serve the public good.

Properly maintained, accessible roads are the arteries of the national economy and an element of public infrastructure that's central to government's responsibility to preserve the commons of civil society. Planning new highways is all well and good, but small communities often depend on a single road that is relatively simply and cheaply fixed and should be maintained regularly.

The Cumberland Hill debacle should prompt a robust response and a commitment to improvements in general road maintenance as well as improving national capacity for emergency infrastructure repairs.