–after taking a whopping $69M to fix just a few short months ago

NOTWITHSTANDING having been completed just a few months ago, the $69M rehabilitation works done on the West Ruimveldt Road Front has begun to show signs of defects and holes.

The contract, which had been awarded last September to H. Nauth & Sons, was among $714.5M worth of construction and rehabilitation works effected on urban roads in Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica); Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice). The project was executed under the former Ministry of Public Infrastructure, now Ministry of Public Works, and is said to have been completed around last December.

A Company representative said it’s yet to be ascertained whether the “Defects and Liabilities” period on the contract is still in effect or has already expired.
“I can’t say offhand right now; we finished it in December, I think,” a Company Engineer said, adding: “If there’s any defects on the road, and it isn’t up, then the contractor would have to fix it. If it’s not up, we have up until the Defects and Liability period to repair it; but if it’s up, I’m not sure how the ministry would treat that.”
The Company official noted that he would not be able to say what could have possibly caused the corrosion, as tests would first need to be done to assess the situation.
Residents in the West Ruimveldt community through which the road runs, had just this February praised the repairs that had been done on it, particularly given the state of other roadways in and around the city.

“It is perfect. I think this is a good way forward for the government; recognising a community like this, and fixing the road for the people,” Joel McRae, a taxi driver had shared with the Department of Public Information (DPI) back in February.

For Mickey Niles, who’s been a roadside vendor in the community for the last four years, the repaving of ‘West Front Road’, as the roadway is popularly known, has resulted in a reduction in transportation costs when using a taxi.

Mickey had told the DPI, “At least at nights when you go out and have to come back in, they [taxi drivers] won’t have to call a whole set of money… Now that the road is done, everybody wants to go up and down it.”