Pressure is once again mounting on the Government to rehabilitate the East Bank Berbice Road in Region 6 after two cement trucks nearly caused a major accident yesterday.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene shortly after 14:00 hrs, crowds had descended on the road, in the vicinity of Heathburn and traffic was at a standstill since the two cement trucks coming out of the area and belonging to Caricom Cement Company (a cement- bagging facility located at Everton) were stuck in two very large craters. According to eyewitness reports, the drivers of the trucks perhaps underestimated the size of the craters and ended up where they did.
One concerned resident, Anthony Rudder stated that “this section of the road was very bad”. He said that on some nights, “I cannot sleep, because some vehicles does come and sit down on this road…people does gotta come out of the vehicle and hoist it off of the bump before they could pass— they have to disembark the vehicle, and cross”.
“This truck stick up here—trying to give another vehicle a path, and he ended up sticking and blocking the whole place”. “The cements started to fall off the truck because the trucks started to overturn”, he added.
He stated that “nothing cannot pass— right lane or left lane— this vehicle here (pointing to a 4X4) tried to make way for the trucks to pass and he ended up in the trench”. The driver, Stabroek News was told, had to visit the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries. The road was eventually cleared.
“Three vehicles stick up at one spot”, he said. “We want this road to build quickly or else some life gonna be taken here”.
He said he had to save a man’s life one night “when he bicycle fall down in the crater…I didn’t know it was somebody until I come outside and shine the light and I see a bicycle— I didn’t see the man until I picked up the bicycle and then I saw the man under the bicycle and I thought he dead”.
The concerned resident added that the estates have started to operate again “which means there will be more heavy traffic here and more heavy- duty vehicle”. He noted that the Guyana Oil Company (GuyOil) petrol bond facility located a little further up the EBB road corridor depends on the road to bring out fuel for distribution “and the cement and oil company depend on this road here for business and if they do not have a proper road, how can business develop in this area”.
“They opened a housing scheme up the road here and they said people ain’t living here— it’s a lie!!”
Beyond patching
“The road is beyond patching; they cannot patch this road anymore”, he said. On Arrival Day (May 5), the residents said that the government patched the road, especially the more dilapidated portions which exist from Glasgow to Edinburgh. “They said they doing it because the President going up there (Highbury) on May 5, and after that they don’t care— it was about 6 o’ clock the night they came (May 4) and did the road and they did it while it rained, rain was pouring and I told them it cannot work because as they pushed the stuff in the whole, it will get out”.
The driver of one of the cement trucks that got stuck, only name given as ‘Sam’, stated that “I was coming from that way and the thing was so deep— and it looked smooth but it was so deep— and I didn’t expect it would’ve go down so deep”. He said that he tried his best to come out “but I could not come out; the place is too deep and the road is too bad”. He uses the road, he said, every day and “every day it getting worse and worse”. “Well today, this is the end of it”.
“This road gotta fix; it got to fix!”, he said.
When posed with the comment that vehicles like the trucks he drives and other heavy-duty vehicles may be exacerbating the destruction of the EBB road corridor, the driver said, “so how we business will go on? We have to transport we cement and we business have to go on— ya’ll have to do the road; if the road do properly, you won’t get these kind of things; it ain’t doing properly”. He alleged that the grader “just come and do the road and they done! and cost $50M, $60M and it finish and the rain fall two days and it gone back to square one again— the road have to do properly!”
“Ya’ll have to get a good contractor and do the road properly!”
The East Bank Berbice road has been in sharp focus over the past couple of months. In February, residents and drivers blocked and shut down the entire roadway and protested its poor condition. Region 6 Chairman, David Armogan tried to appease the protesters by assuring them that the government “will do the road but they have to wait on the [2012] Budget”. He told them that this was revealed to him through discussions with Minister of Works, Robeson Benn. The protestors then shouted, “We ain’t want hear nothing from Robeson Benn, we want President Ramotar, Benn is a waste of time!”
The residents were told then that a new road would be built after the 2012 budget was passed. The budget was passed a few weeks later and the government said that some more time was needed for works on a new EBB to start.
Combine
When contacted yesterday afternoon, Armogan said that government had been looking to a funding agency to combine with what (funds) we have to get the road going but those things take time and the people don’t have the patience and quite rightfully because the road is very bad and they shouldn’t be exercising too much patience, wanting to get the road done, because it is creating serious havoc for them, serious inconveniences for them and their family so we are insisting at the regional level— and I also know the president is supporting us— to have a new road immediately”.
Additionally, he stated that after he was informed about yesterday’s incident, he immediately contacted Local Government Minister, Ganga Persaud “and told him about the road and he got on to Minister Benn and Dr Luncheon [and] they sending a team on Monday to see how quickly they can do some work on the road”.
The team, he said, when they do visit, will start to prepare the Bill of Quantities, “then get it advertised (the contract) [and this] will take some time”. The Region’s grader equipment, he said, was sent to level off the road and the grader did assist the cement trucks “discharge the cement off of the trucks” when they were trying to get the trucks out of the holes.
Several villages and housing schemes as well as industrial operations exist along the 25-mile stretch EBB corridor. Mara and other farming communities, too, depend on a good access and exit road to take their produce out to New Amsterdam and other marketing areas.
