Increase in Potholes After Heavy Rain, Flooding

It will take about two weeks to fix them, says Fiji Roads Authority

The rain and flooding from the recent tropical depression and Tropical Cyclone Zena has inevitably resulted in an increase in the number of potholes along the main sealed roads in Fiji. Now that the weather has improved the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) will be working hard to get the pothole situation under control again.

“This is likely to take up to two weeks and we ask all drivers to take extra care while using the roads,” FRA acting chief executive officer Rory Garland said. “Our contractors, Higgins and Fulton Hogan Hiways will start pothole patching as soon as practical.”

He said unsealed roads also suffered lot of damage in the Western Division as there were extensive washouts of gravel and drainage blockages. “Some of these roads may not be currently suitable for buses at this stage and Higgins will start repair works on these bus routes from tomorrow,” he said. Mr Garland said it would take approximately two weeks to get all these bus routes opened again. Meanwhile, some of the major crossing approaches in Rakiraki, Ba, Lautoka and Sigatoka have been washed out. Many of these were originally damaged in Tropical Cyclone Winston and the temporary repairs had been damaged by these more recent events. This will take about two to three weeks to repair. “We are asking people to be patient as the assessments and repair work takes place. This has been an unprecedented period of bad weather from TC Winston through to these more recent events. Despite this, the roads and bridges have generally been opened very quickly, but the network remains fragile.” Source: Fiji Roads Authority