Quality control issues delay completion of Chaguanas highway widening

Senior Reporter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The widening of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway between the Chaguanas Flyover and Chase Village, Chaguanas, will not be completed on schedule, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan confirmed yesterday.

Sinanan said several factors are to be blamed for the $65 million project not being completed by August 24.

He explained that there is a need to ensure quality control is not compromised, after the contractor on the Chaguanas to Endeavour leg of the project, Junior Sammy Contractors Limited, had to redo some works because the materials used failed to meet the required standard.

“You have to bring in your material on the job and there is a specific spec that we operate with so if you win the job you can’t say I have that spec I’m going to use.

“You have to bring it in, we have to test that in the lab and every piece of material has to be tested and when you are doing the job it is tested again. Any time it fails then you have to do it over or show us what you going to do with that spec to bring it up to the standard,” Sinanan said.

Continuous testing of material is a normal procedure to ensure quality control, he said, adding, “Sometimes you will see a place being paved and then after six months it has to be repaved. In most cases where you see that, it is because there is the period that it has to be redone after showing signs of failure. Once something happens within a period, we report it to the contractor and they have to now go and do it.”

Sinanan said the information obtained suggested that the issue at a particular site stemmed from the underground foundation sand that was used.

He said: “They have to now bring that up to a certain standard, which they have done, and the ministry’s Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency Unit (PURE) will oversee the whole process taken to correct it. My information is that they would have now gotten an approval to go forward.”

The minister explained that the extended period to complete the project will not be at an additional cost. He is hopeful it will be completed before the end of the year but it depends on the weather.

“This year we got an earlier rainy season and the dry season was also shortened and when you have a four to five-hour work day because of the location of the job, all that will contribute to a little delay,” Sinanan said.

Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency Unit (PURE) director Hayden Phillips said despite the setbacks to the project, motorists can look forward to a reduction in traffic before the reopening of the school term next month, as work on two bridges in the area is almost complete.

“The bridge in Factory Road, we will be finishing that before school opens to take back that traffic. Another contributor to the excess traffic on the road is the Bridal Road bridge, we are also finishing that by the end of next week.When those two bridges open you will get some sort of reduction,” he said.

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