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Rehabilitation of Parika backdam access road commences

Jun 17, 2009 News

About $200,000 will be expended over the next few days to repair a near one-mile stretch of the Parika backdam access road, which has for some months been in a deplorable state.
Several residents of the area, including farmers and hire car drivers, had voiced their concern about the state of the road which they claimed was destroyed because of the operation of two contractors who are undertaking separate projects in the area.
The ongoing projects include the building of bridges and a dumpsite at the backdam.
The residents said that the road which was constructed with sand and crusher run in the year 2001 was unable to withstand the weight of the materials transported by trucks for the projects, and thus a section has been reduced to nothing more than a slushy mud path.
According to the residents, they had appealed to the Regional Chairman (Reg.3), Julius Faerber, to repair the road which is the only access road utilised by residents of three communities – Naamryck, Parika and Ruby backdams. They had also taken their concerns to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Faerber in an invited comment yesterday admitted that the road was damaged by the works of the contractors but pointed out that the farmers in the area must also accept some of the blame as they also transport their produce using the same road.
“They are always damaging the road and then calling for it to be fixed. At one time I had to ask them if they wanted me to spend the entire budget on that road,” Faerber said.
Nonetheless, he disclosed that efforts were engaged to grade the road, a development which was again hampered by the movement of heavy duty machinery being utilised by the contractors.
And in order to determine the level of work to be carried out on the road, Faerber said that a team of regional officials visited the area Monday evening.
It has since been decided that materials such as sand, loam and crusher-run will be procured to repair the damaged section of the road, Faerber related.
He explained that while the residents are deserving of a better road, the Region does not possess the means to allow for an extensive project.
“We can’t build a road with a proper foundation. We can only do these small repairs because of the expenditure that we have. So this is all we can do for them right now.”
Faerber however pointed out that it is only the Ministry of Public Works that could facilitate such a project.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday revealed its knowledge of the state of the road by supplying this newspaper with an internal report dated June 12, 2009.
According to the report authored by Senior Civil Engineer, Frederick Flatts, following complaints made to the Ministry, he and another official visited the site.
It was pointed out in the report that the road between the Facade Drain and the new landfill site was impassable to cars and that there was no discernible deterioration beyond the landfill site.
A new road was also constructed to access the landfill site and according to the report, the contractor of that project had many loads of sand and loam transported along the all-weather road using single axle trucks during the rainy period.
“These trucks were bogged down on at least four occasions on the road and one of their drivers even sought the aid of (another contractor) to be pulled out,” the report stated.
It was also duly noted that the assisting contractor had no single axle trucks.
According to Flatts’ report, his observations were confirmed with Mr Deodat Seodat of the Farmers Organisation and the Vice Chairman of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council.
Following discussions with senior officials of the region, it was recommended that the Regional Democratic Council commence the grading of the road, a process which was engaged last Saturday, the report stated.
It was also highlighted that the RDC will borrow about 70 tons of crusher-run from the NDC to help rehabilitate the road.

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