Dear Editor,
I wrote several letters pertaining to the deplorable state of Agriculture Road. I was delighted to see about a week ago that this road is now under repair, but this road works I see are not properly done; they are very sloppy. First I noticed they graded the road up to NAREI. I also noted with interest that they are throwing in some crushed brick or loam into these big potholes; that is not the way to do this job.
First they need to cut these holes deep and dig out all the slush and the moisture underneath and allow them to dry before they put in any brick and cover it with bitumen. They are just throwing some bricks in these holes to cover them and now they will throw bitumen or asphalt. One can clearly see this road has tons of holes at the edges, and the edges are broken. They did nothing about the holes at the edges, and what they are doing will not last a month because very heavy trucks, hymacs and container trucks traverse this road daily. This road needs to be redone in a durable and competent manner, and engineers should determine the weight of the vehicles that can run on it. I need to know who has the contract for Agriculture Road? What does the contract entail? How far will this road be built? What materials ought to be used for these road repairs and reconstruction? And who is the engineer overseeing this work on the road, which we will soon read in the press cost millions of dollars to rehabilitate.
The job I see currently being done on this road is very slow and lackadaisical, and now I am being told that they will not reach NAREI and half way down where all the bigger and deeper potholes are. From the time I saw them start work they ought to have passed NAREI by now and reached the stock farm at the back, but they are just dragging their feet.
I am now calling on Minister Patterson to send an engineer to Agriculture Road to stop this work until a proper contract is drafted for a more durable road. The Minister also needs to determine the types of vehicles this road can accommodate by weight. It’s obvious the road repairs I see here are more suitable for bicycles and not these huge trucks and heavy duty vehicles which drive on this road daily. I have seen many roads built here and destroyed in less than a month, and that is exactly what will happen to Agriculture Road. If they are going to build this road it must be done properly with proper materials and it must be tested by an engineer before taxpayers’ money is paid to the contractor.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
