My Two Cents » Flood Lessons Pt 3 – Road Construction : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

Flood Lessons Pt 3 – Road Construction

The recent rains have caused significant damage to the country’s roadways and have resulted in a huge bill which we are currently unable to fund. There is no doubt that heavy rains can cause damage to the infrastructure but that is only part of the story. The flood rains have revealed the extent to which our roads are improperly constructed. One only has to look at the toll roads which have withstood several floods to get proof of this. In addition one can look at the Winston Jones and the north coast highways. Despite all of the rain there has been no damage to these roads and this is because the roads have been constructed properly. This is particularly good because none of these roads have drains to take the excess water off the road.

For many years the construction and repair of roads has been a tool for governments to reward their supporters. Many of the persons who have received contracts have no experience in the area of road construction and do not have the necessary technical expertise to carry out the work. It is not uncommon to see roads that have been recently repaired sink in patches within three months of the work being done. Additionally even small amounts of rain wash away the surface of the road. Another problem that results in poor roads is the lack of resources. Governments have settled for a quick fix to the problem since it is much ‘cheaper’ than repairing the road properly. However in the long term it actually costs more because one has to continually repair the road.

If we are going to repair the roads which have been damaged along with those identified under the road improvement programme then we will have to change the way in which we operate. Contracts for road construction and repair should be given only to companies that have the technical expertise necessary to do the job. Options of road construction should be examines including the use of adding cement to the marl foundation, concrete roads, volcanic ash, etc. The most important area which is often ignored is the supervision of the work done to ensure that it is done properly. Ensuring that the work is done well at the time of construction will save us the headache of trying to deal with the cost of repairing the damage later. In addition we need strict enforcement of the rule requiring contractors to repair roads where they have been improperly repaired.

The results of flood damage can be quite devastating but with more care up front we can limit the extent of the disruption to the islands road network.

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6 Responses to “Flood Lessons Pt 3 – Road Construction”

Stephen Granger says:

October 15, 2010 at 5:51 pm

I agree 100%, this is a very good article. Pity Governtment will not follow this logical & common sense approach. Cement needed in base foundation any one with some sense knows this so how are these roads built & constructed like this ? Cement company needs business they should sell at concessionary prices to help nation building,now is a good time to ultilize our local cement.After seeing some of the under base of the roads exposed after the rains you can see public corruption at it;s best, poor foolisness & slackness has been going on too long,MOW / NWA – Politics at it’s best wasting taxpayers money using these so called contractors, pure slackness going on,I THINK THE TIME HAS COME TIME TO USE FOREIGN CONTRACTORS ON ALL THESE “PROJECTS” to supervise and manage but use local engineeers ,materials & labour.
john kind says:

October 16, 2010 at 2:17 pm

i cant believe thse people cant even build roads anymore..well i know the criminal politicians have ran off the decent trained workers,while using their gunmen[dons] to fill the contracts of building..there should be a world court looking into this ,because out in jamaica no one in politics commiting crimes ever go off to prison,they are just left alone after a couple of exposures in the media,who are as incompetent as they come…most modern media ,especially in small developing places like jamaica ,are supposed to bring these issues to bear and exposed to the world with these corrupt politicians names printed big and mold…just guess how many usa governors are now behind bars doing hard time for even lesser crimes than thse monsters commit in jamaica…
Allan says:

October 16, 2010 at 2:26 pm

The roads are built to no established standards and there is no quality survey done when the road are built to ensure they meet established standard. Unqualified persons are also contracted to build roads. These sub-standard roads are the result of corruption and stupidity on the part of the government. How much longer must Jamaica deal with this?
BOB says:

October 16, 2010 at 3:38 pm

I Believe its time for us to move to concrete on some of our major road ways!.. because it lost longer especially with the hot type of climate that we have!..
Where some times the asphalt get so soft when the sun is very hot!.. and that lead to erosion of our roads!.. concrete on the other hand would stand up to that and also rain!..

And this would lead to a longer lasting of the road and minimize the money spent on maintenance!.
We have to start putting on our thinking caps!…
1rouletteandpoker says:

July 20, 2011 at 10:00 pm

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oltuogretmenevi says:

July 22, 2011 at 7:41 am

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