The Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Mahaica/Berbice will spend $5 million on 100 steel barriers at entrances to community and farm to-market-roads throughout Region Five.
The Department of Public Information (DPI) said that this was disclosed by the administration’s Senior Regional Engineer, Dhanpaul Sukha.
The administration, he said, plans to set up a minimum of sixty more steel barriers at the entrance of other community and farm-to-market roads next year.
This venture will protect the roadways from indiscriminate damage by drivers of heavy-duty vehicles and equipment.
Sukha told DPI that this measure will be reinforced with legal action against those who transgress. Earlier this week, the Senior Engineer said the problem of the indiscriminate use of heavy-duty vehicles leading to damage had become more pronounced in recent months.
“The administration would have rehabilitated several farm-to-market roads in Region Five this year; spending a lot of money in the process of so doing. However, a main challenge for the regional administration is the fact that delinquent farmers are destroying the roadways – assets of the communities – by irresponsible use of heavy duty-vehicles such as lorries and tractors on these roads”, he said.
Sukha said that some of these roads had been protected by wooden barriers but noted that there were cases where persons driving heavy-duty trucks had driven the cab of the vehicle under the barrier and then used the hydraulic jack on the tray to lift up the barrier and in the process, destroying it.
He lamented: “Destroying these roads two weeks after they are upgraded with the use of Government funds makes the programme uneconomical.”
Sukha also urged officers and councillors of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) to be more hands-on in protecting the roads in their various villages.
“We would like to see more charges being instituted by the NDCs; more individuals being placed before the court to put an end to this kind of irresponsible and criminal behaviour by these culprits,” Sukha said.
