Rishard Khan
rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
More than a month ago, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley promised mass roadworks to commence in the dry season, and according to Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan, these works will begin as early as this week.
Speaking during the opening of the temporary bypass roads in Manzanilla yesterday, Sinanan said the ministry was trying to approach the rehabilitation works differently from previous methods. This means a lot more than simply repaving them.
"It's not just about just going in and repaving roads. What we trying to do now is to make sure the infrastructure is more thought out. We putting in a lot more drains because if you have roads without drains you really don't have anything and some of the roads have to be re-engineered. The foundations have to be looked at," he said.
"Our major focus will be on road restoration, but again, not just road paving. Rebuilding some of the roads, putting in drainage infrastructure and addressing the landslips. Because if you don't fix these things and you just pave you're just throwing away money."
He said the ministry was working closely with utility companies to repair their assets before any major roadwork commences.
Sinanan said the ministry worked with the Ministry of Finance and the funding has been made available. Despite this, he noted that funding is still limited and the roadworks will be triaged to determine which projects receive priority attention.
"We have a system to identify roads. Is not like somebody just feel that they protest and we come and fix," he said.
"We have to look in terms of putting everything on the table, and that is how we choose the roads that we are going to attack first. We have to make sure that the roads we are tackling first are those roads that are frequently used to start with because we have to understand you have a limited amount of funding, and we have to prioritise certain areas for connectivity, and usage and so and then we have to make sure we don't just go in and pave a road without putting proper infrastructure in place."