The pothole that recently developed along the rehabilitated 200-metre portion of the Thomas Lands road has been repaired.
Stabroek News on Saturday observed that a second layer of asphalt and tar had been placed by contractor Pooran Manman and Sons Company to patch it.
“Them (the government) didn’t pay no money fuh the asphalt because of this section and we believe, that based on my engineers, that this slipping come from the shoulder (while pointing to the two sides of the road)…we are not sure because they still doing observation and checks on what was really the cause of the slipping,” said the company’s Manager, Pooran Manman, last Wednesday when he was asked if the entire sum of money was paid to his company under the contract for the project.
The $30 million project was awarded to the company in May of this year and it was given a three-month time frame to complete it. However, upon completion of the road in July, and after a few weeks, it was observed that the pothole had developed, resulting in the visibility of the geo-cell technology which was used in the 200 metre of the road’s reconstruction.
Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill had previously explained to this newspaper that the pothole had developed due to the failure of the asphalt. “The problem was…and he (the company’s contractor) was told by the engineers who have been investigating to see what’s happening, the day when he (the contractor) placed the asphalt, he did not have a ten-ton roller to compress the asphalt so instead he used a three-ton roller.”
“So because the asphalt is not properly compressed, because it didn’t have the required weight-roller to compress it, so when the rain falls with all of that intensity, the water goes between and that’s what causing the cracking, resulting in the failure of the asphalt, it has nothing to do with the technology, it has to do with bad compression,” contended Edghill.
Both the company and the ministry said that they will continue to do inspections as time goes by, and according to Manman, if the road continues to deteriorate, only then will the entire asphalt stretch be dug up and be repaired with the use of the ten-ton roller.
