Patch-and-go roads will cost more in the long run — Penn

Eighth District Representative, Marlon Penn has warned the government against settling for what he described as a patch-and-go approach to fixing the territory’s roads, insisting that it will ultimately be an expensive exercise for the territory.

“We need to get on with the work of fixing the roads in this country and we can’t just continue the patch-and-go approach,” Penn said in the House of Assembly. “I see we started a patch-and-go approach… and even a patch-and-go approach is going to cost us more in the long run.”

Penn urged the government to take a strategic look at how it can address the territory’s road infrastructure issues and pointed out that the current approach hasn’t served his district well. He further noted that there are taxpayers in his community as well and that they have been continuously shortchanged over the years.

“Every time there’s even a patch-and-go exercise, they come as far as the police station and turn back,” Penn said. “The people of the Eighth District continue to be left out. Greenland community continues to be left out.” 

Penn’s comments come in the wake of the launch of the government’s asphalt plant, which promises to help significantly in maintaining and upgrading the roads in a sustainable manner. 

Blame the Opposition

Meanwhile, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley laid the blame for the territory’s poor road infrastructure squarely in the lap of the opposition members of the House.

He promised that, with the new asphalt plant, his government would be able to do more overlays and more patching as it deems necessary. The Premier said the roads are in bad shape because of the short-term thinking of previous governments who he said never built them with proper drainage systems.

“We recognise that the roads are in poor condition, but really, the Minister of Communications and Works had to come in and buy all the equipment that he needed,” Premier Wheatley said. “You know, the governments who were there before did not leave him with any equipment to use. So he had to purchase all of that equipment and it took quite a while for that equipment to get there.”

The Premier said the government is essentially starting from scratch with the repairing and maintaining the road networks. 

“So you have literally, the whole territory falling apart, roads falling apart, and then you have to try to go around and fix it with a very small capital budget. But those were the cards we’ve been dealt and I’m not going to complain about it. We’re just going to go about the work and get the job done,” he said.