Edghill lashes out at contractors breaking up roads

The damage to Guyana’s roads by contractors using heavy-duty equipment continues to be a major concern for the Ministry of Public Works.

Minister Juan Edghill, at a contract signing on Friday, urged contractors to be a bit more considerate.

“You cannot build on one hand and break with the other,” he stated.

The minister stressed that millions of dollars are being expended on Guyana’s road infrastructure.

Edghill said that oftentimes repair works must be done because of damage caused by heavy equipment such as excavators. Usually, when these equipment needs to move from point A to point B, they are transported via a low bed trailer or trawlers but this has not been happening.

“You have excavators walking on the roads, without pads.

“I have gone to roads that were recently done and you are seeing the marks left on the roads, on the asphalt,” he lamented.

“The persons who are doing it is unconscionable and the community people need to do something to stop it because even when you try to ask is who, they cannot get anywhere,” he explained.

Many of this heavy-duty equipment weigh over 80,000 pounds Edghill urged contractors to utilise the right methods of transportation.

“If we have to move these heavy equipment, use the trawlers and the low beds or if you have to walk with them, use the pads,” he urged.

And while the heavy-duty equipment destroys the main access roads, smaller weighty trucks transporting sand, stone, and cement destroy the community roads, the Public Works Minister added.

Community roads are not built to the same specification as main access roads and are not fit for heavy vehicles such as large trucks. But Edghill said this fact seems to be lost on contractors.

“If you bring in a 30 tonne [truck] on a community road with sand and then you put cement on top of the sand because you want to pay for one transportation trip, you are not only damaging the road but also the shoulders of the road,” Minister Edghill said.

Added to that, when the sand and stone is dumped, they often times contribute to the blocking of drains, the Minister said.

“[So] watch your weight [because] you trying to improve your house but then you won’t be left without no road and you will also be affecting other people in the community,” Edghill stated.