Press Release
The state of our roads - statement by Jon Brunson, Shadow Minister of Works & Engineering
Category: United Bermuda PartyUnited Bermuda Party
Hamilton, Bermuda: Monday, April 23, 2007 - The Brown Government, in its headlong rush to drag us all into the New Bermuda, seems to be forgetting that there are parts of the old Bermuda that must not be left behind, or we all will suffer the consequences.Take the roads, for example. If you ride a bike, you’ll know from the bumps that you have to cross over 20 filled-in trenches on Point Finger Road between South Road and Berry Hill Road. That’s not unusual. Up and down the Island, there are stretches of road which have become much the worse for wear over the last few years, and which will be downright dangerous before long. It’s not just roadwork that is to blame. The Government has allowed bigger and bigger trucks onto the Island since it has been in power. One passed me the other day that must have been nearly 50-feet long. It needed a good piece of my side of the road as well as all of its own to get where it was going. It was carrying rubble, tons of it.Bermuda’s roads were just not built with that kind of concentration of weight in mind. You can see longitudinal cracks on Camden Straight that have been caused, I suspect, by heavy trucks, and the same on some parts of the main road in Tucker’s Town and on Harbour Road. There have been partial road collapses at Marsh Folly, near Devonshire Dock and in Happy Valley. I’m sure there are other areas that are showing signs of similar damage that I simply haven’t noticed. Roadwork…heavy trucks…and the third culprit is lack of maintenance. We have about 150 miles of roads. Roads here used to last for 15 years before they started to bring in these heavy trucks. That means that if they’re to be maintained properly, Works and Engineering need to re-surface a minimum of 6.25 miles of road a year.Last year, the Government resurfaced just 2.56 miles, which I am sure includes some resurfacing of the same roads, and the year before approximately 5 miles. This amounts to official neglect of critical infrastructure. It is unacceptable and there does not seem to be any excuse for it. Uneven and deteriorating roads create safety hazards for all, and the roads are increasing becoming more and more unsafe and busy to have the Government contributing to the problem. It simply is not good enough. We already have a problem. But it is going to get much worse very, very quickly unless the Government realises that maintenance is not something you do when you haven’t got anything better to do. It is the foundation…the bedrock…of a successful country.
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