$130M Diamond road upgrades…. Three months past deadline, residents still suffering

Aug 27, 2011 News

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Six months after the heartening development of $130M in contracts being signed on February 8, last, for road upgrades and repairs in the new Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, residents are now peeved and expressing utter disgust that they are not receiving value for their dollar as residents, but more importantly, taxpayers.
The contracts, which were inked by a representative of GuyCo Construction and General Services and Romel Jagroop, stipulated that First to Sixth Avenues were to be completed within the project time of three months. This period has obviously elapsed
Kaieteur News understands that the two contractors were given separate operations where one was to complete from First to Third Avenue, and the other from Fourth to Sixth Avenue. However, when a check was made of the roads, from First to Third Avenues were less than 75% complete, while from Fourth to Sixth there was even more work to be done.
When this newspaper visited the Diamond Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to enquire about the contractors and their work which was attracting complaints by residents, a female overseer said that the Chairman was not in the country and a number that was given for the Acting Chairman, provided a exercise in futility since after the first ring it was later turned off.

According to Mahadeo Deokinandan of Diamond, after enduring years of indescribable inconvenience and uncertainty, he was happy that the roads in sections of the new Diamond Housing Scheme would be upgraded and repaired.
Adding that this was disclosed to him at a meeting earlier in the year at the Diamond Secondary School, he said the Minister of Housing and Water had indicated that the six avenues of  Section A Block X would be upgraded with concrete asphalt, while seven of the cross streets would be bitumen covered.
“We were informed that the specifications for these works would be freely accessible to all residents by visiting the NDC’s office and making a request to Mr Ron Robinson, who was introduced as the area representative in this regard,” Deokinandan noted.
However, he noted that when checks at the NDC were made, a representative said that the specifications and any information pertaining to the project could not be provided.
“In fact, I was told by a member of the NDC that the Minister of Housing and Water was wrong to have informed residents that we could freely access these specifications.”
In further explaining that while the roadworks were being carried out, it was noted that the roads were supposed to be covered with two inches of thick asphalt, Deokinandan said when the surfacing of First Avenue commenced, and he spoke to the person in charge of the operation, he was told that the concrete asphalt cover would be two inches thick as on the main access road to the scheme.
“To date, only one layer of this material, which is less than two inches, was applied. There was no indication or information suggesting that another layer would be applied.”
He said checks of Second to Sixth Avenues revealed that workers were merely filling potholes and covering these with bitumen. Upon enquiry, residents were told that the avenues other than First Avenue would not be completely resurfaced, and the works only included the filling and sealing of potholes.
According to concerned residents, this was not what was related by the Minister of Housing, since they were told that the roads are expected to be redone with the use of asphaltic concrete and double digitmeanous service treatment (DDST). In addition, priority was to be given to the areas under the project with more than 75 per cent occupancy rate.
However, a check of most of the inside roads between Second to Sixth Avenues revealed that there are machines being used along with sand, loam, crush-and-run, and tar, but the main avenues which are supposed to be completed by now are still in a state of disrepair. These roads, residents noted, were to be upgraded to asphalted concrete.
Minister Ali had urged residents to take care of the roads when completed, and he called on them to “become part and parcel of the development process and wave of change that is expected to grip these communities”. He said he wanted residents to ‘own the process’ and to realise that the buck stops with them. “We want you residents to be integrally involved, and so you must become monitors of the final process and work that will be done by these contractors.”
However the residents said when requesting information from the NDC and contractors they were not privy to any information about what was being done.
Efforts to contact the contractors failed, while the NDC, as indicated, was of no assistance.

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