Poor roads can’t all be fixed this year – minister

Although her department has secured financing from several funding agencies, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw is lamenting that all of the roads in a state of disrepair cannot be fixed this financial year.

“The last report, which was a partial assessment, highlighted what every Barbadian knows, that the roads are generally in poor condition, and hence why we had to go out and get the financing. But it means that the financing cannot do everything and I think that is something that Barbadians also have to come to grips with.

Speaking in the Estimates debate on Tuesday, she said the worst roads with the most traffic were the ones being prioritized.

“We are trying our best to do the pothole patching on roads that really should be rehabilitated and while we have more finances than we had before, they are still limited in relation to how far they can stretch and therefore the prioritization that is taking place is also affected,” she said.

Regarding the funds from the Inter-American Development Bank, Bradshaw pointed out these were used on the global heavily-traversed roads.

“By May of this year, we would have spent $24.4 million to complete seven global roads under the IDB Road Rehabilitation and Improving Connectivity of Road Infrastructure Project. The other two global roads, one at Highway Six from the Henry Forde roundabout to Searles roundabout and the other the Ermie Bourne Highway Phase Two from Barclays Park to Belleplaine, are expected to be completed by May this year. 

“The sum of $1 million is therefore allocated in order to facilitate the completion of this project. Under the $100 million Latin American Development CAF program, we would have already spent $7 million in this financial year with works either to be completed, or in some cases, now to commence. Work in Rock Dundo has started, Fustic Village, and Passage Road and I believe Yorkshire is soon to be commenced as well,” she stated.

Furthermore, she revealed that some of the funds from the CAF programme will be allocated this year for road rehabilitation on Highway Seven on the South Coast.

The minister told the Lower House that new technologies are to be introduced to ensure that when roads are built they last longer.

“In this coming financial year, we will be introducing a new technology known as roller compacted concrete, which will allow us to construct roads, which hopefully will last longer. In some cases they are estimated to last about 30 to 40 years based on the studies that we’ve seen overseas, and on our personal visits as well. This is all intended to allow us not simply to just do roads for the sake of doing roads but to ensure that we do not have to keep going back at roads all the time to rehabilitate,” Bradshaw added. 

(JB)