Mosquito Creek road collapse shameful

THE EDITOR: From ancient times to the present, human civilisations have conquered the art of building upon unstable ground, swamps and lakes. They learnt that piling of the areas that have to bear weight has to be done even if its wooden piles – like in the construction of Venice – which have withstood the test of time.

The following is a list of major cities of the world, some of them capital cities, that have been built on swamps and lakes: New Orleans, Chicago, Mexico City, Venice, Berlin, Moscow, London. Many roads have been built on the sea like in Kingston, Jamaica, built by the Chinese.

One stretch of highway needed to be built at Mosquito Creek in Trinidad and the whole thing was botched despite proper advice being given to the consultants and contractors. For now it’s a two-kilometre stretch that sank without weight and before commissioning.

So far its been revealed that the roadway was constructed on a substandard foundation that liquified under pressure from the mangrove side and was pushed out to sea. The seawall, it was revealed, was constructed without a foundation footing and has started cracking.

Most importantly, no drainage tunnels were placed under the roadway to facilitate a natural synergistic exchange between the swamp and the sea. Because of this eggs and hatchlings from fish cannot grow and develop in the swamp, which is actually a nursery.

Someone needs to be held accountable for this debacle as the cost to taxpayers may be doubled because of the cost of piling the entire highway. Please, for God’s sake, get someone to do the job the right way and take away the shame it has left us with.

The Minister of Works is not a qualified engineer and cannot make comments as to the safety or future of this project.

JOEL QUINTAL

via e-mail