REGION 10 Chairman Renis Morian and regional engineers have put systems in place to ensure contractors hired to build roads in the region deliver work of high standard.
Morian on a visit to recently constructed roads in Amelia’s Ward said residents complained to him that some inferior work was carried out.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been injected into capital road works for 2018 with the expectation that quality work will be delivered. “We are walking the stretch of the road because residents feel that they are not fully satisfied with the road, especially the shoulders, because, this road was constructed under the raining weather, so the fact that the road didn’t get to set properly under the rain, you would find these kind of problems,” Morian said about Main Street Amelia’s Ward that was constructed only weeks ago. Structural faults are already evident.

Residents of Cinderilla City and Central Amelia’s Ward who have to utilise the road, were elated that the road was finally been constructed, given the level of suffering they would have endured from it being in a deplorable state. Several residents on Sunday expressed their joy that the road was finally done.

Morian said the contractor will be recalled to do some corrections to the work done on Main Street which has already begun to show faults.

“We will have the contractor do some corrected work, to the satisfaction of the bill of quantities to ensure that residents will have a better road,” Morian said. Concerning that same road, where millions were expended, the engineers realised that the road was not set properly and one of the corrective works to be done, is to place a curb wall at the sides. Morian said that it is best to expend more money for the curb wall than to lose all the money spent all together.

This inspection exercise will be an ongoing one, in an effort to ensure that the works are up to standard as the capital works programme for 2018 continues. “Once a road is built, the RDC will check, given the amount of rainfall… we are finding ourselves between a rock and a hard place, the residents want the road to be done, but the rain continues to come down,” he related.

The engineer also noted that contractors are not mixing the right proportions of bricks along with the other aggregates, to ensure that the road will be a long lasting one.
At a recent community meeting, residents voiced their concerns of substandard work being done on roads and called on regional officials to fix the problem.

Regional Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira in response said that the building of roads is a community project and residents too have to play their role in ensuring that the budgetary funds, which are their monies as well, are spent in the best manner.
He urged the residents to collect a copy of the bill of quantities from the RDC and monitor the contractors as they go along their work. If inferior work is observed, then it is the residents’ responsibility as well, to report same to the regional officials of the works committee. Notwithstanding, the regional officials including the clerk of works and other engineers from the works department also have to fulfil their role in making regular checks.