Blame contractors for sorry state of roads

THE EDITOR: The US Army Corps of Engineers built the North Coast Road over 70 years ago. Only recently it was affected by a land slip which was quickly remedied.

The San Fernando to Point Fortin Highway is being constructed. Recently, a portion of the highway on the San Fernando Creek collapsed. To this day, it has not been repaired. Why are we given such execrable works? Anybody can make a perspicacious deduction that our local contractors are seriously lagging behind in expertise.

American contractors build roads based on the four-layer method: sub grade, sub base, base and surface upper layer. Their roads last for decades. Ours cannot last a full six months! Even the Brazilian company OAS Construtora did a good job.

Just examine how we fix potholes. We plug the hole with oil sand and then smooth it over with asphalt. After three months it will open up again.

I see a new Secondary Roads Committee was formed under the aegis of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development with $300m being set aside to do its work. The board must insist that contractors do not do shoddy or gauche works.

I see people protesting against the Government for better roads but their anger is misdirected.

They should protest in front of those contractors who are responsible for constructing these roads. Our roads are not even able to withstand simple wear and tear.

Why doesn’t the Works and Transport Ministry's PURE unit provide a storm policy on road construction or rehabilitation? These pack of jokers who parade as contractors have received billions worth in contracts to fix our roads.

After a few months citizens protest for the same roads to be fixed again. This leads me to conclude that these local contractors – some whom are multi-millionaires – are not patriotic and just don't give a damn!

It’s time both Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan and Rural Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi sit down and come up with a plan for holding local contractors more accountable for the sorry repair work done to our road network.

If they can't do the job, then foreign contractors particularly from America should be brought in. It makes no sense spending hundreds of millions annually to repair the same road network. Any fool can see this reasoning. We have bad roads because we have incompetent and unpatriotic contractors.

JOHN JESSAMY

Fyzabad