Contractor Namalco does temporary repairs to collapsed road for free

TWO WEEKS after a portion of the road collapsed, cutting off access to residents of Sobo Village Extension in La Brea, contractor Namalco Construction Services Ltd has come to the residents' rescue by repairing the road at no cost to the State.

On Sunday, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan visited the site to personally thank Namalco engineers and workmen for undertaking the emergency rehabilitation work to bring relief to residents and the motoring public.

Sinanan said he hopes other contractors could emulate Namalco's altruism.

Sinanan said the repair is temporary and a technical team from his ministry would soon assess the situation for a more permanent solution

Brighton/Vessigny councillor Gerald Debisette, who accompanied Sinanan on the site visit, said a leaking water line caused the road to erode.

He said residents were cut off, children could not go to school and garbage trucks unable to collect garbage in the community after the road collapsed.

Last Tuesday, he said, WASA was able to repair the leak. Debisette said he contacted Namalco who agreed to provide temporary work as a community service.

“I want to apologise to the residents for the inconvenience over the period and thank Namalco for its generosity for its restoration work.

Weather permitting, he said the work would have been completed on Sunday to make it passable in time for Monday morning work and school.

Sinanan said while this road falls under Local Government, he responded to Debisette's request for technical assistance from his ministry to ensure connectivity is maintained.

He said a geo-technical study will be done to ensure soil movement have been stabalised and what sort of engineering will be required.

“Given the size of a project sometimes, the ministry takes over a project to bring relief,” Sinanan said.

While this is not the first road to collapse due to leaking water lines, Sinanan defended his colleague Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales.

He blamed WASA’s aging infrastructure and the weather for saturating the earth and causing land slips and damaged to the road network.

“We cannot allocate all the blame to WASA. WASA infrastructure is not a fault of the minister. It is a fault of the aging infrastructure and climate change. The land is saturated and you find a lot of land movement,” Sinanan said.