We need to pay more attention to road construction –custos
HANOVER CUSTOS Dr David Stair is expressing disgust with the condition of the roadways in Hanover and across the island in general, saying that the state of disrepair is quite troubling.
“Let’s face it. We live in a tropical country, and Jamaica should be one of the easiest places to build roads as materials are readily available, and you want to tell me that we cannot do better than what is happening now?” asked Stair.
In raising concerns about the shoddy quality of the work that goes into the nation’s road construction, Stair intimated that the fault may be as a result of not using persons with the requisite competence to do the job.
“They (the roads) are being made to last until the next shower of rain … . It has been a chronic situation. We have no choice but to question the technical abilities of the contractors being hired to build the roadways,” said Stair.
The custos said he was particularly concerned about the main thoroughfare along the North Coast highway between Montego Bay and Lucea, noting that there is hardly a good section left on the surface of the roadway.
There is no road left,” said Stair. “If it is not sinking, it is cracked up, it is breaking up, it
is pothole-riddled, and I am sure this is the way it is all the way up and down the place, especially the segments that were actually done or completed by local contractors.”
Stair went on to question whether standard specifications and guidelines were being given to the contractors being used to build the roads, and whether proper supervision was being carried out during the construction period.
“You have to design your roads for what you want them to do for them to stand up, and you have to put out specifications,” emphasised Stair.
You cannot just throw down little marl and blacken the top and call it road and then expect a 40- or 50-tonne truck loaded with stuff to drive on it and not expect it to mash up,” the custos argued, adding that specifications were key to the lifespan of the roads being constructed.
The custos also made mention of roadways he knows that were built several decades ago, such as the Queen’s Highway in St Ann, Norman Manley Boulevard, and others in areas where bauxite mining is taking place, which, he said, have stood up to the rigour of years of use. He said that there was a vast difference between engineering then and now.
“Until we start paying more attention to specifications, we are flogging a dead horse,” said an obviously disappointed Stair.
The recent heavy rains, washed the island, caused billions of dollars in damage to the nation’s roads, to include many that were upgraded at a significant cost in recent months. Based on the level of devastation in some areas, it is believed that some of the roads will have to be abandoned and new ones constructed.