radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Every morning, Christiana Ramdeen looks out at a landslip above her balcony that is located dangerously close to her home at St Julien Road, Princes Town. The road has become impassable, with a broken WASA distribution main located just above her home protruding from the dirt.
Ramdeen says St Julien Road is one of the worst roads in the country. Several families have abandoned their homes there, all of which have been left lopsided and vacant in the once thriving community.
But St Julien is not the only area affected by devastating landslips. Since last year, there have been sporadic protests in communities throughout south and central Trinidad, including Penal, Barrackpore, Moruga, Rio Claro, Mayaro, Cedros, Icacos, Woodland, Claxton Bay, Couva and Debe. Among the issues raised by residents are deteriorating landslips, dilapidated roads, inadequate water supply, predial larceny, crime, high food prices, escalating fuel prices, poor drainage, extensive flooding and poor maintenance of water courses.
In urban areas, there have been fiery protests over police killings, injustice, rising crime and poverty.
During the tenure of former Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, the police kept a tight rein on the fiery protests and road blockages but a few months after his removal last October, the Opposition UNC began calling for an “uprising of the people” against injustice, discrimination and poor governance. Since then, dozens of protest fires have been lit on the nation’s streets.
But do these protest fires do more harm than good?
According to Dr Don Samuel of the Faculty of Engineering at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, when people burn tyres on the roads, the two top layers of the asphalt become even more damaged causing more potholes.
“The residents could be doing more harm than good in certain circumstances. A protest fire involves the burning of tyres. If the temperature of the fire exceeds the softening point of the asphaltic concrete within the road pavement structure, then surface damage could occur,” he explained.
“Asphaltic concrete exists within the top two layers. Therefore, a protest fire could damage the top two layers of the road structure but the extent of damage depends on the temperature, intensity, flame depth and duration of the fire.”
That is why some roads collapse after protest fires such as occurred in Agostini Village, Rio Claro, last year.
Dr Samuel said overladen trucks can also damage roads, so there must be better regularisation of vehicles on the nation’s roads.
“The first step would be to conduct traffic studies to determine the most frequently used routes of the trucks. Once the most frequently used routes are determined, the road structure along these identified routes should be analysed via in-situ sampling and testing in a laboratory to determine its maximum load-bearing capacity. If the road structure can bear the imposed loads, then trucks can be legally permitted to use the road,” Dr Samuel said.
Dr Samuel, who called for regular maintenance of all roads, made some short-and long-term recommendations. He said it is unacceptable that roads are only paved around election time.
Why residents protest
Many of the residents who have participated in recent protests believe blocking roads is the only way to get the attention of the authorities.
“We feel like they don’t care about people down here in San Francique because it is a UNC area,” said Khemraj Gayapersad, who took part in a protest at Santa Cecelia Road, San Francique, where six houses have collapsed because of a landslip. The road, which connects Woodland to Siparia, is accessible only by vans,
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SUVs and larger vehicles.
“It bothers us because we have been told the government will do nothing here because it is a UNC area. We now have to make an entire round to get to Siparia because this landslip is getting worse every time rain falls,” Gayapersad, a taxi driver, said.
In the past two weeks, taxi drivers have staged protests in Claxton Bay along Hermitage Road, lighting fires on a properly paved section of the road.
Taxi driver Sheldon Mahabir called on the government to do better.
Contacted for comment, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan denied that Opposition areas are neglected and there is discrimination against rural communities. He also denied that the current PNM regime only paves roads at election time, describing it as “an inaccurate statement.”
Sinanan said applications are made to the Ministry of Finance for funding through the draft estimates, mid-year review and special requests. Once funding is received, the Works Ministry executes its programme of work. In fiscal 2021/2022 the expenditure based on allocation was $237 million for road rehabilitation, he said.
“This allocation has been utilised for road rehabilitation projects, including improvements to drainage, road rehabilitation, slope stabilisation and bridge reconstruction.
“There are over 300 road rehabilitation projects scheduled in this fiscal year, of which 94 have been completed, 94 are ongoing and 99 are expected to commence and be substantially completed by September 2022.”
Sinanan said 17 projects are still in the tendering process and contracts will be awarded before the end of the financial year.
Apart from these 300 projects, Sinanan said the ministry has awarded 25 contracts to small contractors to supplement their teams to carry out road patching throughout the country.
Asked how are roads prioritised for paving and why Opposition-controlled areas seemed to have the country’s worst roads, Sinanan said the road network under the Ministry’s purview measures 2,140.67 km and comprises highways, main roads, secondary roads and tertiary roads.
“A road condition survey is conducted by the Ministry every three years where roads are classified into six categories—very good, good, fair, poor, very poor and critical,” he explained.
Based on the categorisation of the roadway requirements, a maintenance strategy is developed in keeping with international standards. Routine maintenance is done on roads that are categorised as very good, good or fairly good.
“To ensure the fair roads are functional and safe, periodic maintenance activities and pavement preventative maintenance treatments are scheduled, including milling, spot paving and sectional rehabilitation,” Sinanan said.
However, poor roads require rehabilitation while very poor and critical roads require reconstruction, which can cost a lot more money. With limited funding, the Ministry is forced to carry out extensive pavement preventative maintenance treatments such as patching, milling and spot paving as well as sectional rehabilitation to ensure more roads can remain functional and safe, he added.
“This strategy allows the Ministry to repair approximately five times more roads with the existing budget.”
Sinanan said a prioritisation matrix is developed to assist in prioritising roads for maintenance based on the road condition, the road classification, the amount of traffic utilising the road daily and the presence of detours in the area.
WASA leaks and road damage
In response to complaints that perfectly paved roads are often dug up by WASA, Sinanan explained: “It should be noted that issues arise due to WASA leaks and untimely reinstatement. Since MOWT carries out pavement maintenance, any road reinstatement not completed by WASA is subsequently carried out by the MOWT,” he said.
Asked whether rural areas were being discriminated against, Sinanan said: “For the last year, 81 infrastructural projects have been contracted in rural areas of Trinidad. Works have been completed on 40 of these projects and the remaining 41 are either ongoing or are scheduled to commence soon.”
Out of the 300 projects identified, Sinanan said for fiscal 2021/2022, approximately 27 per cent are in rural areas.