Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 06, 2014 News
“…we would not get any [new] road for this year…and we feel that is a political gimmick and that is the strategy of the PPP to delay—buy time—so as to delay to build our road!”- Chairman EBB Hire Car Ass’n
By Leon Suseran
With October just about three months away, no contractor named, no price-tag attached, and a feasibility study that has just gotten underway, residents of East Bank Berbice believe that a new East Bank Berbice roadway this year is just another empty promise by the current administration.
They are distrustful of the consultations being streamlined over the past weeks in Berbice. They see them as just ways to subdue their anger and frustrations so that they do not resort to protest action and road blockages as was
evident in the past.
Two weeks ago, a Canadian consulting firm, EXP, visited East Bank Berbice to have talks with the residents and hire-car operators. The funding agency for the proposed new East Bank Berbice road project, the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), was not present at that meeting, neither was any member of the Region Six Administration.
Residents were told at that meeting that before the new project starts sometime in October, $60M will be awarded to a contractor in the Region to do more remedial works along the 25-mile stretch of roadway.Residents caused an uproar at that announcement and demanded to know how each cent of that money will be spent and the specific materials that will be sourced for the job. They do not trust the contractor who is believed to have secured the job, since that contractor, whose base operations is located along the East Bank Berbice roadway, has contributed to the roadway’s destruction over the years via the use of heavy- duty, road building equipment.
Additionally, at the meeting, residents accused that same contractor of using mud and other substandard materials in other multi-million dollar remedial works contracts to fix the roadway over the years.
One resident proposed that the government give the $60M to the hire car operators to fix their cars which were damaged over the years due to large potholes, “because if you give [name of contractor] the $60M it [the road] still not fixing.”
“Give the money to the people to let us supervise the work ourselves, because the people you all giving this money too are not putting the money into this road. We are tired and fed up of this nonsense!”
Chairman of the EBB Hire- car Association, Maxwell Semple, does not believe there will ever be a new East Bank Berbice roadway.
“Me and the regional personnel from the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and members of the Ministry of Public Works have been engaging in several meetings and they bear no fruits.” Last week’s consultation, he believes, was just another meeting that seemed fruitless.
Semple assumed that if the feasibility study is to take place now, “and it would last for the next three months, we would not get any [new] road for this year…We feel that is a political gimmick.”
He noted that if the authorities do not become serious about building a new roadway, “we the residents will do things about it. I am not comfortable.”
Mr. Samuel Mona, a resident, believes that a new road could be cut along the EBB corridor. “Emphasis is on a new road, and for us to have a new road, we have to do a diversion.”
He believes the current EBB roadway is too narrow. To make such a two- lane roadway, with shoulders, is highly impossible. “The area is flooded all the time because of the river and that, to my mind, raises the concern for a new road in a new direction.”
“The underdevelopment of this EBB is because of this road,” one resident added.
Ms. Bernice Duncan, Social Engineer Specialist of EXP, on Wednesday met with the group of residents who volunteered to be a part of a Road Users Group (RUG), tasked to monitor the project whenever and if ever it comes on stream.
Other residents are calling for an urgent start to the new project, “and no more promises but something genuine.”
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