Lethem road and bridges are in a dangerous state

Sep 26, 2016 Features / Columnists, Letters

Dear Editor;
For years we are hearing how many money is allocated for repairs and maintenance of the Linden – Lethem road on an annual basis.
By now one would have expected that there would be yearly incremental improvements to the road. What is appalling to know and experience, is that the state of the road is becoming worse every year.
This ongoing situation will leave right thinking Guyanese and especially the users of this road and concerned tax payers to believe that Guyanese are not getting their value for money.
A recent trip on this road ended up as a disaster. I am driving this road for the past 20 years and never ended up with an accident. I never saw the road and the bridges in this condition as there are now.
I know in the past bridges and segments of the road washed away, but these instances are deemed to be situation beyond our control where there were heavy rains and flash floods.
One of the main reasons why I say that I never saw the road and bridges in this condition before is because we are having very good weather conditions currently, especially this year, so one is left to believe that the authorities would have sought to capitalize on this good weather condition to improve the road and repairs all bridges.
The road condition is that bad that one will take almost 8 to 10 hours to travel from Linden to Kurupukari. Most of the bridges are broken and there are no signs to inform the not so frequent road users of such a condition.
The bridge which is in a very dangerous state and can cause serious accident and loss of lives is situated at least 20 miles before the Kurupukari Crossing.
It has about 4 big holes which make it very dangerous to traverse over the bridge without dropping into the hole.
We were told that these bridges are in these conditions for over 6 months and no one is taking any steps to address the situation.
According to information received from reliable sources in the area, Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) already cut the logs to repair these bridges and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) seized the logs because they did not get permission to do so.
This is unbelievable, knowing the situation of the bridges. DTL was going to repair these bridges pro bono. GFC’s action should be questioned on this matter. For over two years, no repair work was done to the road we were told.
The Government should look into this matter as a priority since a large portion of their revenue is earned from the mining and forest sectors.
I will submit a recommendation to the Government during this week on how to maintain the Linden to Lethem Road in a very economic and viable way.
Roubinder Rambarran

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