Motorists who traverse the Parfaite Harmonie Access Road say they are fed up and frustrated with the main carriageway which is constantly developing potholes of varying sizes.
Stabroek News has reported extensively on the state of the road, which was commissioned in 2015, over the last year. Despite being constantly patched and repaired by the two contractors – BK International and Gaico Construction and General Services – the road soon returns to the previous deplorable condition within weeks.
A visit to the 3.5 km stretch of road recently revealed several potholes ranging in size and depth. Water was also accumulating on certain sections of the shoulder, which forced motorists to drive in the middle of the road.
“We have become so accustomed to this situation that we don’t even complain anymore. Whenever they fix it, within a few weeks it goes back to the same. It’s a cycle that all drivers that use this road have been normalised with. All we do for precautions is watch out for holes because every day is like a new one you see. It’s never the same, it’s always in different spots and sizes. Every day a hole surprises you when you drop in them,” a resident of the community, Jason Dow, said.
The road was designed to accommodate two lanes of traffic and links the housing scheme to the West Demerara Public Road. Currently it is the main access road to Parfaite Harmonie, since the majority of vehicles seeking to enter the community use this road. A number of heavy-duty vehicles carrying sand, stone and other loads also use the road and contribute to the constantly deteriorating condition.
“It starts with one small hole by a truck or something, and then as soon as a little rain fall, the hole expands at least twice the size. It’s like these holes does live and breathe with how fast they does grow,” another driver said, while explaining that it is usually very difficult to traverse the road during the nights because of the randomly scattered holes.
The drivers said that there is a need for more extensive work to be done on the road and not just “patchwork”.
“I think it should be obvious by now that patching isn’t working. You can’t patch and patch and patch all the time and expect it to fix the problem permanently. Clearly there is a fault in the way the road was built and that needs to be addressed or it will continue like this forever or until something really bad happens,” Dow said.
