-residents on the look-out for poor construction
Despite the rainy weather, contractors are working diligently to finish building and resurfacing Linden roads, while residents continue to keep a watchful eye on them to ensure the works are done to an acceptable standard.
Roads in Amelia’s Ward, Richmond Hill, Half Mile, Canvas City, Wismar Hill Housing Scheme, and Fox Road at Wismar and the Mackenzie section of Watooka were targeted under the Regional Democratic Council’s capital and recurrent project budget allocations for 2010. Under the capital project budget the Regional Administration has received $37 million, $40 million and $40 million for recurrent road projects.
According to Regional Administration Senior Works Officer, Courtney Handy all road works under the Capital Budget started on April 27 and are near completion. He noted that the contract for Well Road at Amelia’s Ward is $7.2 million and the one for the Wendell Lashley Road in the said community is $4.7 million. These projects are 15 and 63 per cent complete.
On the western side of the Demerara River; Wismar, the construction of Fox Road which is being done at the cost of $3 million is more than 40 per cent complete. “First Alley, $5.6 million, 15% completed, South Amelia’s Ward Road $7.2 million, 15% complete, and Oronoque Drive $7 million, 60% completed. All of the roads are schedule to be completed by June 20,” Handy said. He said too residents at Half Mile, Canvas City, Wismar Hill Housing Scheme, Watooka and Richmond Hill are among those that are expected to benefit greatly from this $40 million road maintenance project.
Further, “Gift Street at Half Mile was awarded at $2.3 million and is 30% completed. Sand Street Canvas City $3.7 million, 35% completed, First Wismar Housing Scheme $3.6 million, 40 per cent complete and River Side Drive Watooka $3.3 million, 33-35 per cent completed,” he said. These works are expected to be a boon to residents who often complained that the poor roads were causing costly damage to their vehicles, among other problems.
Additionally, the Regional Administration has been urging residents to monitor the projects to ensure that they are not sub-standard, a call they have been taking seriously. Residents of Retrieve said that they have had cause to summon Regional Executive Officer Henry Rodney and Handy on numerous occasions to intervene in the resurfacing of the road in that area. They say that drains in the area were being covered which resulted in the back-up of water on the already resurfaced patch.
Handy told this newspaper that the administration has indeed been receiving calls and in that particular case he noted that the work was being done in phases. “The work is at a point now where the drains have to be addressed, the road resurfacing has stopped at a stage to facilitate the works to the drain. Everybody is calling claiming sub-standard works are being done even persons at the highest level of the town council but no one is asking to see the scope of work which would give them a better understanding of what is being done and to what extent,” he explained.
Residents from other areas have also lodged complaints about second-rate work being done. They say that a number of recently paved roads had been dug up in order to facilitate pipe-laying exercises.
“This road is not yet one year old and look where you are seeing all those red dirt gutters across the road is where GWI dig up to lay pipes and they just left it like that,” one resident said angrily. A walk along Yuraballi Street in Retrieve revealed more than five bursts across the road where pipelines were laid.
“What is most disgusting is if I take a small stick and pass it along the burst in deh road you gon see the pipe because they put it so close to the surface,” another resident complained, adding that “You could understand what is gonna happen in a couple mornings from now.”
This newspaper’s efforts to contact GWI’s Public Relations Unit proved futile but a senior officer at the company said that as part of the contractors’ scope of work they are required to do an asphalt finish on all of the area that had been dug up.
