Diamond residents slam ‘shoddy’ road repairs

Apr 29, 2013 News

Placing asphalted concrete on the Diamond Avenue ‘B’ pothole filled road during the current rainy conditions has not found favour with residents who believe that the contractor is ‘shafting’ the work to hurriedly complete the task.

Potholes in Diamond Avenue ‘B’ road

But the contractor Kares Engineering,` has dismissed the East Bank Demerara residents’ concerns claiming that because of the heat of the asphalted concrete, commonly called hot mix, the rainy weather would not have negative effects on the repairs.
According to a resident, the roadway which was upgraded to Double Bitumen Surface Treatment weeks ago already has potholes. And, in some parts of the road there are signs that no surface treatment was used and only ‘crusher-run’ was placed.
He believes that the contractor should have filled those potholes and waited until the weather changes before applying asphalted concrete.
Again, dismissive of this suggestion, the contractor explained that that is unnecessary, since all that is required is to blow out the holes to empty the water and place the asphalted concrete. He assured that this project has a one-year defects liability period and if there was anything wrong with the road he would have to fix it. As such, he is ensuring the works are done properly.
However, the approach of the contractor to this project has residents and observers wondering what the response time of the contractor would be like if indeed something went wrong with the structure.
Construction works on the road started last year and had stalled for several months. The project, according to a Government Information Agency article dated March 15, involves rehabilitating “Blocks 1 & 2 of Avenue A with asphaltic concrete, and Avenue B and another cross street with crusher run”. Works on the project commenced in April 2012 and were expected to conclude four months later in August.
Owing to several complaints, the Auditor General’s Office focused its attention on the stalled works. Days after the publishing of a news piece in this publication on April 6, the contractor recommenced works on the road. A representative of Kares Engineering mentioned that the company only had one week to complete the roads.

Contractor constructing road in rain

But, after placing asphalt on a section of the road the machine reportedly contracted from another contractor had mechanical problems. The works again stalled and took some time to start again. However, the contractor is blaming the delays on accessing asphalt, stone and other construction materials. He said that asphalt is being accessed from Corentyne in Region Six and from the Public Works Ministry.
There were two staffers of the Ministry of Housing on site monitoring the project when this publication visited the area last week.
Meanwhile, the female Ministry of Housing staff said that the contractor will have to execute the project properly or else he would not be paid the 10 percent the Ministry is expect to pay after the one-year defects liability period.