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alexk
Guest
Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan says his ministry will “not bow to the pressure” of persons who burn tyres and debris on the nation’s roads saying they will not condone such action as he cautioned communities which take such action that they hurt themselves and their communities.
He said, “When you burn things you damage the road, and put stress on the roadway.”
Such protests, he said, “Make it worse for the area,” and will not force the ministry into action.
On Monday, residents in Barrackpore from Monkey Town to the Number Two Scale, threw tyres and debris on the roadway and set fires along intermittent points demanding that the road be fixed, motorists had to find alternative routes in and out of the area.
Sinanan said, “Strange enough that area where the protest was held, Dr Roodal Moonilal spoke to me last week and we put in place a crew to go down there Monday morning to do some patching, unfortunately the crew could not go because of the protest.”
Moonilal is the MP for Oropouche East in whose constituency the road falls.
Because of the protests, Sinanan said, “the director called me and said he cannot go Monday because the staff was unwilling to go down there.”
Sinanan said while the ministry recognised “there are a lot of areas that do require road reconstruction and road paving but we do have a challenge with funding at this point in time.”
He assured there is a plan to fix roads across the country. “We have a programme of works to be executed throughout Trinidad and Tobago, unfortunately all cannot be done at the same time.”
Only yesterday, he said, he approved a programme for 49 projects from the Director of Highways who is the person in charge of all the major roads.
Sinanan said, “This programme is across the country and it’s based on availability of funding. It is also based on priority and the physical nature of the road. The priority is done by the director of highways who is in charge of all roads in Trinidad and Tobago.”
The minister insisted this was not “a response to what happened on Monday, this is something the director had been working on and he brought it to me for approval.” Sinanan could not say whether the Barrackpore Road, which prompted the protest was included in the programme.
Sinanan appealed to communities for “patience and understanding.”
He said for everybody who think their roads are the worst, “if they do a survey throughout Trinidad and Tobago they would realise there are other people in worse condition than they are.”
Acknowledging that there are a number of roads to be rehabilitated Sinanan said it was “unfortunate” that not all roads can be repaired and rehabilitated “at the same time,” but he made it clear that the ministry will not bow to the pressure of protesters “we do not support the burning of tyres and that behaviour and we will not condone that behaviour. It will not speed up the process for any area,” he said.
Mark Francois, Managing Partner of Beston Engineering Consultants, a company which does roadways across the Caribbean, told the T&T Guardian the structural damage done from such protests are not significant “if you overheat asphalt it will soften it, and then it would come back to normal.”
But he cautioned that if the fires go for hours “without being put out it could do permanent damage, it would make the road worse. They should not be doing that.”
He said it was “lawlessness,” and while he admitted to understanding people’s frustration because they may feel their issues are not being attended to, Francois said such protests are “ not helping the situation.”
Francois said the bigger issue is quality control in roadworks.
“You see highways being paved all over, when they should at least be lasting seven years without resurfacing, you see them being resurfaced under seven years, which means the country is paying two and three times for something they should pay once for,” Francois said.
While fixing potholes is important. Sometimes more is required he said.