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Benn blames torrential rain for damaged Mabura road

Jul 15, 2010 News

Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn, and Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall, during an afternoon press briefing, yesterday, lashed out at Kaieteur News and blamed the torrential rains in the interior for the damaged sections of the Mabura Road.
Rickford Lowe who is the Head of the Works Services read a prepared statement said that following heavy rains on Sunday last, a culvert at 42 miles on the Linden-Lethem road collapsed rendering that section of the road impassable. He said, too, that some erosion at 40 miles created some difficulty for motorists due to erosion of the roadway. Lowe said that when the Ministry learnt of the damaged sections to the road, immediate steps were taken to have repairs done.
Benn said that the Ministry was informed on Monday morning.
“In this regard the section at 40 miles has been fully rehabilitated and the works commenced at 42 miles where pipe culverts of increased capacity will be used.” He added that these are expected to be completed no later than Saturday.
Benn said that there were ongoing road works at different sections prior to the rains but had to be halted because the rains would hinder any proper road works.
He said that it is because road building equipment was already in place that the repairs could have been effected with such swiftness.
Benn contended that suggestions that an all weather road be built would be costly. It would cost some US$250M and Guyana simply could not afford that. He said that he was satisfied with the level of work being done in light of the circumstances. Lowe told media operatives that substantial sums are being spent annually on the maintenance of the road.
He said that expenditure in 2009 amounted to some $244.4M and the allocation for 2010 is $300M.
“Repairs are ongoing to bridges along the corridor and tenders for further repairs to bridges, amounting to over $100M, are being advertised…Inclement weather conditions over the past two months have, however, curtailed road maintenance works.”
Benn insisted that the road collapsed on Sunday. He said that this newspaper report is grossly inaccurate and the repercussions of such a collapse would not have escaped the notice of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications, the media and the public over such an extended period.
This newspaper however is standing by its story that the collapse happened long before Sunday evening.
In seeking to explain the gravity of the situation Benn told media operatives that what is being tacked is two-fold in that there is a significantly high spring tide coupled with the heavy rainfall as a result of an adverse weather system which has flooded a large section of the interior.
He explained that the roads are covered under several feet of water in some areas and the roads are laterite which makes it susceptible to the erosion.
“You could go and see for yourselves….there is flash flooding coming down from the creeks…There is high water… There is extreme level of waters at culverted sections.”
He said, too, that there are reports of overtopping on the Linden/Ituni road that they are closely assessing.
He said, “We are going through an extreme event at the moment and it is a challenge that we have to manage.” The Minister said that they have been advised that there may be another two weeks or more of the same weather and they will have to wait for the optimal time before works could be restarted on the roads.
The Minister said that at present persons should try their best to avoid travelling on the road if it is not a necessity adding that despite the fact that they have not stopped traffic on the roadway they were unhappy with some of the heavy duty trucks laden with items such as timber traversing the roadway.
He said that in the current conditions the roads are being damaged further.

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