The Ministry of Public Works has said that it spent $604M to maintain 359 kilometres of public roads across five regions last year and works on a major thoroughfare at Turkeyen are expected to be completed this week.
Maintenance works were done on Vlissengen Road, Irving Street, Mandela Avenue, Duncan Street, the Soesdyke/ Linden Highway, Home-stretch Avenue, University of Guyana Road, Water Street, Carifesta Avenue, Sea Wall Road, Railway Embankment, Camp Road, Barrack Street and other public roads in Georgetown, a report from the ministry said.
Upgrades were also done on roads on the East and West Coast Demerara and the East Bank Demerara.
Some of the works performed were minor rehabilitation of local failure, pothole patching, crack fill longitudinal/transverse/edge cracks, levelling and applying thin overlay to rutting, minor rehabilitation of local failure, surface seal block cracking, road safety maintenance (road marking and signs), cleaning and clearing of existing drains, grading and shaping of road shoulders and revetment installation.
The routine maintenance by the Force Account Unit (FAU) on all declared public roads has reduced travelling time and will reduce operation costs for vehicles, the ministry also said.
It noted that the maintenance will also extend the life of the roads and increase driving comfort.
Meanwhile, the FAU is currently rehabilitating 3,280 feet of road at Section Q Turkeyen.
Works started on December 12 and Lawrence Mentis, head of the FAU, expects the project to be completed this week, barring inclement weather.
Mentis, who is also a Civil Engineer, was quoted as saying that his department has finished cleaning the drains and culverts and the reconstruction of its pavement from white sand/sand clay to finished asphalt concrete.
“This is the only road leading into the housing scheme so we have to maintain it to a certain level of acceptability for the residents,” he said.
