The government's Road Maintenance Unit (RMU), which is currently being established within the Ministry of Works, will cost taxpayers an average of $15 million annually, according to Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis. "The department is being set up within the ministry to create a road maintenance program because it is recognized that part of our challenges over the years is that we build, construct, use and forget the element to maintain," Davis said yesterday during a press conference at the Ministry of Works. "And because of the lack of maintenance, deterioration sets in and it gets worse.
"As a part of this project, we are mandated to set up this maintenance project and program. I'm advised that we will probably be spending around 15 million a year for road maintenance." As a condition of the agreement that the government has with the Inter-American Development Bank, which loaned the government most of the money to fund the New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP), the government has to facilitate the upkeep of the new roads. Davis said the RMU will not affect the patching program as some of that work will be contracted to private companies.
The NPRIP is projected to cost $206 million when completed. Cost overruns associated with the project are estimated at $93 million. The Airport Gateway Project is projected to cost $70 million, and the road network to support the national stadium is projected to cost $45 million. "Recall, please, the extraordinarily large amounts of money I referred to with NPRIP, the Airport Gateway and the stadium-related roads and you quickly appreciate that we have a desperate need to maintain our roadways," he said.
"This division (RMU) will be provided with the necessary tools and staffing which will permit it to know where the problems are and to expeditiously fix those problems. "It is considered that if potholes are routinely and properly repaired and roads are properly resealed, they can have their lifespan lengthened to multiple decades, thereby saving the taxpayers from having to fund the many millions of dollars which have been regularly spent on having to replace neglected roadways, not only here in new Providence but throughout the country." In 2008, the Ingraham administration signed a $119.9 million contract with Jose Cartellone Construcciones Civiles to carry out the New Providence Road Improvement Project.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
