But the Ministry IS working on rehabilitating the sinking roundabout and surrounding roads at mile 3.5 on the Philip Goldson Highway. Drivers would know that the roundabout dips severely, and that the road leading up to it is uneven. Today, the Minister explained that this is just a temporary solution that won't exactly fix the issue, but that the solution will cost millions and involve a causeway.
Evondale Moody. Engineer Coordinator, MIDH
"Basically what has transpired is that we have a section of the road approximately 2.5 kilometres that is undergoing some differential settlement and that is because of the geotechnical strata that is under the road pavement right now. It has approximately about 40-45 feet of peak which is basically just black dirt and so even after the years that we've been reconstructing the road over and over it continues to have differential settlement. So what we are doing as a temporary measure right now is to try and improve the sections that are settling, bring them back to a level standard. We also have the roundabout that we are experiencing some settlement on that section for about 50% of that roundabout and so our idea is to pile the roundabout. So we will have it on pile foundations with beam and then have a new concrete pavement on the roundabout itself."
"Similarly, we would like to do that for the road way itself, but at the current time we just need to rehabilitate it so that it is adequate for motorists to use. Our permanent solution which we are currently working on at this time is to pile the entire 2.5 kilometres of that section of the road to tie on to the Haulover Bridge that we are presently constructing."
Reporter
"Will this new construction fix the problem once and for all or no?"
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing
"No. We have done a feasibility study and we have sent it to some lending institutions to do a causeway from the roundabout that Benny's has all the way to the Haulover Bridge, but that's an expensive proposal. In the meantime, because of the emergency, government gave us through the emergency funds 3 million dollars and so what we are doing, we're going to pile the roundabout. The roundabout will be permanent and then we will just resurface the road so that it is an acceptable level until the main project is approved. You have to understand the tendering process and the access to financing takes years at time. We can't wait, so we have to fix it until that project comes online."
