Dear Editor,
In an article on the collapse of poles in South Ruimveldt, the General Secretary of the PPP and Vice-President of the Repub-lic of Guyana Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo express-ed his opinion that, “the Government starts firing people who are not doing their work and are being paid to oversee projects not being done properly and therefore neglecting their duties”.
The collapse of several newly constructed concrete electrical transmission poles in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown raises a number of troubling questions regarding responsibility for this mishap. The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) was given permission by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL ) to remove wooden poles from one location and replace them with concrete poles to accommodate an expanded roadway. Therefore the responsibility to make the changes was that of the MPW.
Accordingly, a contract was awarded by the MPW to execute the works.
The evidence suggests that during construction some the poles were not anchored properly into the ground. The weight of the electrical wires and accessories between poles together with excessive lateral wind pressures on the system caused it to sway too far in one direction which took it and the concrete poles with it to the ground because of insufficient resistance from the soil into which some of the poles were planted.
The question as to who is responsible for this catastrophe is yet to be answered. The poles were not broken so it could be assumed that their design was adequate to carry the expected loads. The contract specifications would have stated the depths to which the poles should be planted below ground level to resist system movement in any direction.
Soils – clays, silts, pegasse, sand, etc, each have different frictional resistance to any force imposed upon it. Therefore the engineer had to calculate what this resistance was to determine the length of the poles which should be buried in the ground to cause the soil to resist any lateral movement of the poles. Several methods are available to anchor poles firmly into the ground to resist lateral movements and the inquiry as to the cause of this fiasco should examine whether any of these were used or not. The ongoing road and drainage works on the Aubrey Barker Road may have contributed to this incident but they are not the major cause. The specifications, contract documents, execution of the works and the design will bear this out.
Yours truly,
Charles Sohan
