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Residents concerned about construction of Dr. Miller Road
a section of the Dr. Miller Road causing consternation with residents
… Company refutes claims by residents
Residents of Triumph, East Coast Demerara, have expressed concern at the standard and pace of work being done on Dr. Miller Road, and recently highlighted a number of issues with the construction project, which is being overseen by the Community Roads Improvement Programme, to this publication.
The $39.3M contract was awarded to H. Nauth and Sons Construction Company. A visit to the works being done revealed visible damage to the road surface which, according to residents, had been recently surfaced.
One resident, an engineer by profession, explained that in order to ensure that the road surface did not crack, engineering standards required that the road be ‘scarified’ or excavated to a shallow depth, then the crusher run would be applied to fill up the bad sections of the road. The bill of quantities for the project specified that this be done.
According to residents, this was not done. Rather, the bad sections were simply filled in with low grade materials. This was listed by the residents as one reason why the road has already deteriorated and the works are not even finished.
On Thursday, Karen Roopchand, Project Co-ordinator of the CRIPS project, stated that works on the road are still in progress, but since mechanisms are not in place to prevent vehicles from traversing the road, the road surface would appear to have deteriorated.
However,Roopchand maintained that CRIP has been monitoring the project based upon the criteria stipulated in the contract and bill of quantities. She said that all requisite tests are carried out on the materials to be used in the construction phase and that the entire project, from the tender process, has been open and transparent.
Julian Archer, an engineer attached to Nauth contracting, explained that the section that had to be scarified was from the main road to the railway line. It was rolled, and then crusher run was applied at about six inches to bring it to the required elevation.
He said that over the railway line, the sections to be scarified had to be determined by him and his team after an on the site inspection of the road. However, the engineer went on to clarify that the entire road was proof rolled to determine any soft spots. Sections determined to be sound were not excavated.
Archer assured that the entire process was done according to the bill of quantities and work still has to be completed, such as final shaping, grading, marking and stripping of the road. He said that the fissures in the roadway from vehicular use, caused by the road particles not adhering, will be fixed according to due process.
H. Nauth and Sons has been featured prominently in the media after residents would have highlighted works they considered substandard. This happened most recently last November when residents from the East Bank of Berbice complained about the shoddy work being done on one of their thoroughways.
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