Severe erosion threatens Burnham Drive… again

Mar 07, 2017 News

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– Calls made for urgent intervention
By Enid Joaquin
A Councillor attached to the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), Region Ten, at a recent statutory meeting, drew attention to what he called ‘a situation’ on Burnham Drive.

The ‘situation’ that Councillor Douglas Gittens highlighted, is severe erosion, which currently threatens the infrastructure of that main thoroughfare, in the vicinity of the Mackenzie /Wismar Bridge.
Calling the situation an emergency that needs urgent intervention, Douglas said that if remedial action is not quickly taken, the “hole” could pose a serious threat to life and limb. As such, calls were made for urgent intervention.
‘Sir, the situation at the bridge is so much worse now – I recently took Councillor Belgrave (to see the hole) and she was like what?
The hole is so much bigger now and if we don’t take action quickly, about half of that road would cave in – that sir, is an emergency. And the speed with which these guys hit that turn they could fly into that hole.”
Chairman Renis Morian questioned Gittens whether he had a recommendation to make as regards the issue, to which Douglas responded, “yes sir, that is the recommendation… that we move quickly. It means that we have to move now, today!”
Morian responded, “You said that we need to move quickly…We as in who? And do what? Are you aware that the Regional Democratic Council is not the custodian of Burnham Drive, Republic Avenue and Winifred Gaskin Highway? Are you aware of that? So you’re asking for us to find money and do it?’
Not in the least bit flustered, Gittens said no, but nonetheless suggested filling the cavity with tyres and highlighting the spot with a stick.
Morian’s response was that the Works Committee’s councillors should do that.
Gittens also queried the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s response to the issue, and Morian detailed, “We over the past six months would have brought every section of the Ministry of Public Works on that road – Mr Vaughn (the then Head of the Works Services Group of the Ministry) came, sea defence (officials) came, because we said to them that the road is being eroded by the river. So they came up and did their scientific works by the river. We had the engineers from Public Infrastructure come up more than four times.”
Morian said that the last information that he had gotten with regards to the issue was that the road had gone to tender. He noted that he was aware of the process involved with tendering which takes about three weeks just to advertize.
He added that the RDC would have engaged the Ministry of Public Infrastructure several times in relation to Burnham Drive.
Undaunted, Gittens also highlighted several other issues of damage to the Burnham Drive thoroughfare.
Only late last year, extensive rehabilitative works were carried out on Burnham Drive on a section that had collapsed, not far from the current damaged section.
In the wake of that collapse, Morian had called for an assessment of the thoroughfare to be carried out. He had pointed to several other sections of the road that had eroded, with the result that there were gaping holes, including one in the vicinity of the old Palm Tree Cinema. The Regional Chairman had expressed fear that the road might collapse while people are traversing it.
Speaking with Kaieteur News yesterday, Morian said that he was happy that the issue of the road is being highlighted. He expressed optimism that action would be taken urgently, to avert a possible catastrophe, as the thoroughfare has been catered for in the 2017 budget.
Burnham Drive runs contiguous to the Demerara River and is the main thoroughfare on the Wismar shore. Over the years the severe battering from the river has resulted in several sections of the roadway being compromised. The area that was highlighted by Gittens is about one hundred yards from the Mackenzie/Wismar Bridge.
The present ‘trouble’ area is where a koker runs under the road. The koker drains West Watooka and nearby areas, but because of all the erosion, water backs up and causes flooding during the rainy season.
“I happy that y’all gon highlight this in the media, you know is how long we complaining about this? Is time it get fixed properly, because somebody do it before, but it didn’t do properly, so it get worse now, and it can cause accidents, because it right on a turn,” a resident of West Watooka pointed out.
A taxi driver declared, “It dangerous, because all these big lumber trucks have to traverse right here, and the road can break away and cause a terrible accident!”
Exactly one year ago, revetment works to the tune of some $21 million was done at Section ‘C’ Christianburg, in the vicinity of the Katapulli Creek. Those works were undertaken by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and involved some 100 yards of revetment.
The area had been severely eroded by the river. Katapulli is also located on Burnham Drive, Wismar.

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