Road repair a priority
The Ministry of Transport, Works and Maintenance is doing all within its power to repair the country’s road infrastructure and will ensure that their resources are shared equitably across the country.
The assurance has come from the Minister of Transport, Works and Maintenance, Dr. William Duguid, as he spoke in the House of Assembly yesterday afternoon during the debate on a $7 million supplementary for road works. The Christ Church West Member of Parliament told the Lower House that their aim is to get the road infrastructure back to what it used to be.
“I remember Madam Chair, of a road that was started in 2007, before the Government changed, in Evelyn Terrace. And when the Government changed in 2008 that road just needed the final surface on it; this is now ten years later, 2018 and Evelyn Terrace has not yet been completed over a ten-year period, because Christ Church West was completely neglected by the previous Administration,” he told the Lower House.
His comments came as he gave the residents of that area the assurance that his ministry will be addressing that road as a matter of urgency. Duguid spoke to that as he indicated that his ministry intends to have better planning as it seeks to carry out road works in this country. The Transport, Works and Maintenance Minister said the intention is, wherever possible when it is conducting road repairs or rehabilitation, to put in the trenches for utilities such as natural gas.
“It is unconscionable that we go and complete a whole road and then a year or two years later come and dig that road back up to put in a trench for natural gas. So we are not only assessing the water supply, changing the water pipes under road before we do the final surface, but also I intend to get all the services such as natural gas put in before the final layer is done,” he stated.
Duguid, a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC), said the NPC has advised him that they are ready, willing and able to lay natural gas pipes at Flagstaff Road, St. Michael which is currently under repair.
“…We recognise that so many times we do roads and we could put in the infrastructure which would have reduced the costs to the Corporation or to the Government in general, and we lose an opportunity that we could have utilised at that time. And I am asking my technical people let us not miss these opportunities, let us take the bull by the horns, let us put the infrastructure in before we do the final roads,” he said. (JRT)