Do it right!

No quick fixes. Fix the potholes properly.

 

That’s the advice the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) is sending out to the Ministry of Transport and Works. The Ministry yesterday moved to patch some potholes in the Christ Church and St. Michael area, including at Sargeant’s Village, Christ Church where the BRSA intended to launch their pothole markers initiative to help motorists better identify where potholes exist, but the BRSA is adamant that the patch job was temporary and a more long term solution is needed.

 

“As you can see the hole was patched. There were two, one on each side and both of them were patched. Yes we do commend them, as they are doing something, but this is not good enough. This is not what we want. This inferior type of patching is not want we want, because in another week or two this is going to be out, especially if we have rain and it is going to scatter these pebbles. They are going to go in the drain and they are going to block up the drains,” President of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA), Sharmane Roland-Bowen said.

 

Roland-Bowen contended, “So this is not what we want, we want something better. Do not give us inferior patching across the island, we don’t want that. We want something that is semi-permanent, if not permanent and we will not be standing for this only to make people look like they are doing something.”

 

Her comments came as she also expressed concern that gravel from what seemed to be an asphalt and gravel mixture that was used to fill the holes could also be easily dislodged and become missiles that could cause damage to vehicles or even pedestrians traversing the area.

 

Meanwhile, executive member of the BRSA, Carson Lee also expressed concern about the mixture used to fill the hole, describing it as “unacceptable”.

 

“Look at it. Nowhere in the world you can fix a road way with that type of material. I would put that in a secondary road where there is a lot of foot traffic, but certainly not in a road like this one that is heavily trafficked on mornings. I’m telling you that by weekend that material will be gone,” he stated.

 

Their sentiments were shared by resident in the area Doreal Brathwaite, whose home is close to where the pothole was in Sargeant’s Village. Brathwaite said the hole did not develop with the recent heavy rain, but was made worse by it. In fact, she said the hole often developed and all the Ministry would do is put “barber greene” in it, but she was at a lost regarding what the workers had put in the hole yesterday.

 

“I really don’t know what this is here this morning, I really don’t know what that is, cause it start to come up already… They were trying to do something in a hurry, that’s all I could say, before the media get to it. But time will tell,” she said. (JRT)