Over $5M spent on road patching since 2019
Public Works Minister, Kye Rymer has revealed that more than $5 million has been spent on patching the territory’s road networks over the last three years.
While speaking in the House of Assembly (HOA) about some of the work done within his ministry, Rymer acknowledged that the territory’s roads are in a ‘dire state’, but said his ministry is awaiting funding to address the issue.
“I know we travel and we see how decent roads are supposed to be and our roads are definitely in a dire state, but we are working to get those addressed so that when visitors come to our shores and even us as residents, once we drive on the roadway, we have smooth and proper roadways to drive on,” Rymer told lawmakers recently.
The minister further said his ministry has been trying its best with the limited finances made available within the budgetary allocations.
“We know we have an age-old road infrastructure that we are working to modernise, and we’ve seen the efforts of all the road rehabilitation done through the RDA since 2019 where we did some road rehabilitation and stabilisation,” Rymer said while making reference to the Fish Bay road that was rehabilitated recently.
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley explained that it cost taxpayers approximately $2 million to execute the project that this short stretch of road, which he noted was almost 100 per cent complete.
“Though expensive, this is a model that will be followed for the stretch of road between Paraquita Bay and Fat Hog’s Bay, which should be tendered shortly, among other areas of the territory based on a phased approach to properly engineered and constructed road development projects,” the Premier said during his budget speech this week.
And according to Minister Rymer, designs for roadworks from Paraquita Bay to Trellis Bay have already been drawn up as well. The minister said this project will eventually cost approximately $10 million.
“But in the interim, we are working to patch those holes, those potholes that are reoccurring, because what I can say is, since being elected there has been in excess of about $5 million being spent on asphalt patching,” Minister Rhymer added.
Rymer said his ministry will continue to try to make the roadways comfortable for motorists and residents and visitors alike but explained that it is a work in progress.
“The roadways, they have been this way for quite some time. We have all the capabilities, all the plans… everything to get the roads repaired. But, simply, we’re just waiting now to get the funds,” he added.
During the budget speech, Premier Wheatley also noted that the Public Works Department (PWD), with the assistance of the Ministry of Communications and Works, was able to commission its own asphalt plant, which he said will help the department to be more responsive to the territory’s road repair needs and lower the cost of road projects.
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The roads need drainage, else potholes would always come, the water has nowhere to go. Public Works suppose to have engineers, and can’t find a solution to the same problem that’s happening for years. Just wasting money patching for the next day for it to come back.
This budget needs to be Quadrupled as ive not seen any repairs to the pot holes most places on island. There are holes ripping out suspensions from vehicles. Ive seen them with my own eyes.
Grossly underfunded and complete neglect for the road users.
He gotta be patching the road with either MUD or COW DOWN because it is not lasting at all.
The patchers misssed so many holes i wonder if they are blind.the whole of mainstreet road is bad.the roundabout road in road town is bad.the begingning of the road going east from the road town roundabout needs to widing.any truck coming out of Skelton concrete needs a tire wash at the exit.i could go on and on.
Where you put this 5 Million? Not on these roads I drive on every day.
With all due respects Mr Minister I know you are trying but this is a problem that’s probably older than you. We need to get this right. Whatever it takes. Your engineers have not gotten it right in decades. We’ll believe it when we see it. For now we’ll enjoy the couple inches of smooth road at Fish Bay and cuss the rest of the way like we are accustomed to do. It’s a norm now.
..and $4.99 million of it already washed into the sea. Smh
The cost for the Fish Bay section is way over the top. We do not get value for money spent.
Stop patching snd fix it,you patch and 2 days later its back to square 1
Who get this money?
1) someone’s cousin
2) someone not qualified to do the job
3) the politicians pocket the money
Either way, we the people get the short end of the stick.
This idea might sound crazy but for 5 million couldn’t we properly fix some of our worst roads
can tell you that the roads lack proper drainage /and when the rain starts falling its settling in the dirt under the asphalt INSTEAD of running off bento the gutters on the sides , and when the constant traveling of vehicles on the road the end results is those lovely POT holes .( maybe we can drop a seed in some of them ?
50 million on patches.Bvi people really needs to wake up.other Caribbean countries spending less on roads infustructure and getting value for money
Seeing that is costs $3.8 million per mile, that’s 1.24 miles.
That works out to 2184 feet paved per year for the last 3 years.
You’re welcome.
Road works should be done by the Government (Public Works), not contractors. Train your staff and have well knowledgeable persons heading the department. Other countries have the government road works department who focus on work that needs to be done to the road.
increase the registration fees on cars and trucks. they do not reflect the cost of keeping roads.
trucks fully loaded ( or overloaded as it is here) give 2000 times more road wear than cars , and yet the trucks in the territory pay very little in registration.
its the cheapest place in the world to register a car why?
car tax should be 500-1000$ per year and trucks depending on size 3-5000 and up.
in europe a truck is 10-25000$ a year to register. because they produce a lot of road wear.
It is amazing that PW ignores the principals developed over 2000 years ago by the Romans, with many of their roads still in use. Three main principals; Drainage, Drainage, Drainage!!!
“Election Roads” barely outlast our confidence in those we elect.
We need to stop the “If we build good roads we won’t get to repair them every year” as we can’t afford that anymore. The Territory is broke, at the limit of it’s borrowing power, and the only way to get back on track so we have a future is to drastically reduce government, and in particular our elected official’s, spending on anything other than infrastructure. We will feel better for longer driving on safe roads than a few nights at a music festival or a few horse races. Lives will be saved with a proper working incinerator.
Only people committed to improving everyone’s quality-of-life, not just their crony’s, should be considered for election!!
Are you mad?
Clearly you don’t own a car. We can definitely pay more IF AND WHEN the roads are fixed and maintained first.
How many tires or axles or arms have you lost on these treacherous roads?
Whi gets this money ?- well me; DUH!! Take a look at Joe’s Hill lately? Tourists traverse our roads and when we have 2 and 3 cruise ships in you can hear and see the looks on their faces whenever the walk or drive these donkey paths.
PWD has never been properly funded, managed and staffed. Roads need to have a camber or fall so that the surface runoff can drain adequately. Didn’t we all see the debacle on Main St. during August when WSD dig up the road to lay sewer pipes – I mean didn’t they know this well before the project was completed?
$5 mill for patching seems like a lot, but considering the severity of the dilapidation (by neglect) of roads territory wide; may be a pittance compared to the costs to build 20 year roads. We desperately need a paradigm shift around here!
@Makes No Sense – Too true.
The government “patches” the roads, they don’t “make repairs”. It shows. There are patches on top of patches on top of patches. The same holes get re-patched several times a year. We know where they are, fix them properly!
And point a finger at land owners and Water & Sewage. They come along and rip up the road way to do whatever they are going to do, toss the dirt back in and walk away because they happily created “other people’s problem”, but their own.
1 truck load of asphalt is $16,000 dollars
How do yall want any patch job to last if they’re not cutting the hole out nor using tac oil to me all he’s been doin is wasting money it would be better if cut out the section of the n redo it
Wow . Thank you Mr. Kye . For putting the company you’ve been paying on blast. Cause they making all this money of the backs of good ppl . But they ain’t paying their employees a decent wage or incentive for the hard work they done to help the company. Rox**** step up n stop being greedy .