The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Ministry of Works yesterday said it is investing a further $2m to combat pot holes plaguing New Providence's road network after recent heavy rainfall merely worsened the hazards facing motorists.

Francis Clarke, the ministry's senior engineer, said flooding had cause increased road erosion that will require more extensive paving than just patching a few pot holes every week. The latest works, which started on July 8, aim to “eliminate the current road defects and backlog".

“The contracts for all 12 zones of New Providence have been renewed and have already started road repair works. The main focus at the moment is the arterial and collector roads and residential areas that are most affected," he added.

Each of the 12 zones will be allocated $102,000, with the balance being spent on materials, renting specialised equipment and asphalt. This sum may increase as the need arises, said Bahiyyah Hepburn, a Ministry of Works engineer.

Mr Clarke added: “Even though we have already affected road repairs in certain areas, we plan to resurface intersections such as East Street and Balfour Avenue; East Street and Cordeaux Avenue; Carmichael Road and Musical Avenue; and the segment of Windsor Field Road by Charlottesville.”

The Ministry of Works has also begun using its Artificial Intelligence (AI) app, Vaisala RoadAI, to help map areas where potholes are located and where they are most likely to occur.

Despite the assistance of AI, mapping the zones and sending work crews out to undertake road works is still a challenge, Ms Hepburn said: “So, at the moment, there's a road management system and it goes between both electronically and manually," she said. "We have the individual assistant engineers who are managing that area, and what happens is the contractors as they go out, they go and they actually log out where each of those locations are.

“Some of the locations that we already have are already in the complaint itself. Some of them are also scoped with regards to inspectors and assistant engineers. So there tends to be an overlap of information coming in.

“Right now, even though I know that I have about 200 plus locations, the volume of what has come in is much more than that, and so what ends up happening is that as those places are noted. We say this is within the sector of this or this zone, and kick it out to the contractor who does it.”