Contractors rehabilitating internal roads at Mahdia in Region Eight have been facing challenges posed by the need to have Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and Guyana Telephone Telegraph (GTT) infrastructure moved, Senior Hinterland Engineer, Ministry of Public Infrastructure Naeem Mohamed has told GINA.
However, according to a GINA release, he said that this is being addressed and to date 15 per cent of the work has been completed and contractors are increasing their pace.
The release said that according to Mohamed, the approximately $720 million allotted in the 2016 budget will see two kilometres of the roads concreted, along with several drains.
Additionally, work on the Mabura road will commence shortly. The contractors will be removing slush from the potholes and other areas, and in the dry season laterite material will be added on the road, “so that the road will be more passable in time to come,” Mohamed told GINA.
According to the press release, the contracts were awarded to J R Ranch Incorporated, but work was delayed owing to heavy rainfall.
GINA quoted Mohamed as saying “It is challenging doing the grading when the rains come when you do on surface road in rainy season it gets more complicated, the material becomes more plastic and there is a difficulty in doing roads when these times come.”
He said maintenance on the roads is usually executed annually, since it would not be economical to carry out periodic maintenance. “We also cannot allow lots of time to pass before we do work on the road so we have to choose the right time to get it done,” the release quoted him as saying.
Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman and a team had visited Mahdia earlier and were apprised of the poor state of roads in the community, the release said.
It added that Trotman had assured the residents that rehabilitation would have been done this year since there was an allocation in the budget for the paving of roads in Mahdia.
The release said $1.702 billion has been provided for rehabilitation of hinterland roads in Bartica, Mahdia, Ituni-Kwakwani and the Cassandra Crossing Bridge.
