Public Works finally commence road repairs in East but met by noncompliant motorists
This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola. This BVI News photo captures patch jobs done by the Public Works Department on roadways in the eastern end of Tortola.
By Kamal Haynes, BVI News Staff
After residents were made to endure deplorable road conditions within the Lambert community for an extensive period, members of the Public Works Department (PWD) were spotted on Thursday conducting patchworks on the roadways.
Those public works came just one day after BVI News reported that private business owners within the heavy equipment and cement industries had donated their services to repair a few damaged roadways in the Greenland and Lambert communities on the eastern end of Tortola.
While members of the district were happy that the long-existing problem was finally being addressed by the relevant authority, some were not pleased with the end result of the patchwork from the Public Works Department.
BVI News investigated the area and observed that several of the concrete patches were undermined by vehicle tire markings.
Our news centre also found incomplete patch jobs on the roadway.
Noncompliant motorists created difficulty
After reaching out to the Director of the PWD, Jeremy Hodge, he informed BVI News that his team had experienced a number of challenges while working in the area.
He said most drivers were not adhering to the detour signs and were instead using abusive language towards the PWD workers on duty.
Hodge said this became difficult to manage and resulted in the quality of work being compromised.
“What was reported to me is that they did not get much cooperation from the motoring public in the area so they had a hard time controlling motorists as they drove past,” Hodge explained.
“Signage and cones are one of the protocols they would use to alert the public of what you’re doing so that they can move with caution. But even some of my team members were telling me that they were fearful for their safety because some persons were acting as if they wanted to run them down,” he added.
Works to continue today/Asphalt to be laid next week
Director Hodge also said his team will recommence work in the area today, Friday, September 11 to finish the uncompleted areas.
“What we were doing was to try to put some concrete on that concrete road stretch area. But what we’ll have to do now given that we have those tire tracks going through the concrete; we’re going to be laying asphalt from next week. This, of course, is easier to apply and as you put it down you can basically drive on it,” Hodge stated.
He continued: “We had a few delays and of course with the curfew in place, we are trying to get the stuff done within the curfew perimeters.”
New road design for Lambert community
Hodge further said his department is working on new designs to completely change the current road infrastructure in Lambert and will be collaborating with other departments to ensure seamless execution of the plans.
“We are working with the Water & Sewage Department because we don’t want to actually fix the road and then they’re having to lay these pipes. They have ordered some of the pipes already and they’ll be installing these pipes, I hope, within a few weeks or in a couple months’ time,” he stated.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
Why are we always patching up horrible roads.
What about finding a structurally sound solution.
Patching up is only a temporary solution.
That’s coming
when pigs fly
Where do the millions go?
The VIP is a patch and go government
Pwd had already planned to reinstate these roads so it was not a reaction to anything but you all go on. Those inside who tryin to mek the government look bad stop it.
Reality is that they are always doing shoddy work because there is no supervision or accountability. You should not be repairing roadways that can only last for a month. Every other month they are patching the same holes in the roads. Some body needs to be held accountable and not just be sending the guys out with a shovel to throw some asphalt into a hole. There have to be more to road repairs than that.
There is no one here who knows how to properly build a road . Shoddy work by the 4 people who work while the other 20 on their phones and flexin .
There are PWD engineers here, trained on taxpayer dollars. But they are not capable of doing proper road designs. And they prefer to not go out on the road in the sun and supervise the work.
And then you have the politicians who prefer to bypass PWD and give the work to their incompetent contractor friends.
If they were patching after 1PM no one could “not co operate”, cos they all would be home, where they belong. Sick of lame excuses.
they should be working after 1pm when everyone is inside simple and easy
We really deserve better than this, the hundreds of millions of dollars that various governments have squeezed from the treasury over the years is pure theft. The electorate should be totally ashamed of themselves. Fix the f**ck**g roads properly.
How come public works department cant do a good job on the road for once’ I guess the fair job done on east end , close to college recently was due to supervision by the minister for labor.
They can do better than patching the road every day or week. This shoddy job causes road accidents and damages to vehicles.