The cart and the horse

Aug 16, 2009 Editorial

Last week, with great fanfare, it was announced that the road (we cannot, in good faith, call it a “highway) between Vreed-en-Hoop and Parika in Region Three will be illuminated for its entire length. In the normal course of events, this announcement would be the cause for great celebration by the residents, signalling as it seemingly does, progress from the present situation where pedestrians and animals present an ever-present danger to the unwary motorists (or vice versa). However, when one contraposes the announcement with the bitter complaints from the residents of the same area that they have been plagued with blackouts for the past few months and the response by GPL that the power-generating capacity of the Versailles Plant cannot satisfy peak demand, one can appreciate their sullen silence.
Under the present triage system in place, the peak demand period between 6 pm and 9 pm precipitates the most frequent power outages – yet this is the very period when traffic is heaviest and street-lights would be helpful in the prevention of accidents.
So what, asks the beleaguered residents, will be the fate of the lights? Another white elephant in the making? Who is doing the planning here? Are we not putting the cart before the horse? One would have thought that the first priority of the planners – and deployers of our scarce resources – would be to augment the generating capabilities of the Versailles Power Plant before they place further strains on it. Are there plans in train to deal with this need?
But this instance of a lack of co-ordination among the planners of our infrastructural development is not a unique occurrence. In the same Region there have been several instances that spring immediately to mind and it would be a long list indeed if illustrations from other Regions were catalogued. There is, for instance, the scale for heavy-duty vehicles on the western approach of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, which this newspaper has highlighted in the recent past. After it had been determined that these high-tonnage vehicles were contributing inordinately to the wear and tear of the structure of the bridge, the scale was proposed to give the bridge’s management greater control (not to mention revenue) over their passage.
So what happens? After extensive and expensive work has been done on the foundation project, for all purposes, it was abandoned for a year until this newspaper highlighted its status. We are now informed that the funds for the approach to the scale are only now available and work will recommence shortly. We shall see.
So in the meantime, the replacement of the steel surface of the bridge (that is grist for another mill, on carts and horses) continues apace – without the benefit of the scale that was supposed to assist in its proper usage.
Then there is the now famous koker at De Willem. What began as a story in possible boondoggling, lassitude and official malfeasance, has taken on new dimensions. We now learn that the actual location of the $154 million structure was arbitrarily shifted by the contractor because he encountered an obstruction (a buried cane-punt) in the original intended course of the outlet.
So to save himself some money, he shifts the location of the Koker because, in his words, “Water doesn’t run in a straight line.” Apart from pointing out that, even laypersons are aware that it is a straight-line approach to kokers that helps them to develop the water force necessary to reduce silt accretion – we ask where were the official engineers that are supposed to monitor such constructions? Wasn’t it putting the cart before the horse to pay this contractor before signing off on his compliance with the specifications?
And now the contractor has the unmitigated gall to demand additional payment ($7million) for revetments made necessary by the “crooked-line” he introduced to the Koker approach.
We believe such poor project planning has led to a great deal of unnecessary criticism of the administration and they are well advised to place a high priority on its rectification.

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