PUBLIC Works Minister Alfred Sears. (File photo)
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
WORKS and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears assured the public yesterday that his ministry has a comprehensive plan to improve roads throughout New Providence and has already deployed contractors out on the streets to carry out much-needed repairs.
Mr Sears was responding to complaints from motorists about numerous potholes and poor-quality roads throughout the capital.
“It’s being addressed,” he told reporters outside the House of Assembly when asked about the issue. “They’re being addressed very comprehensively. You will see contractors throughout the 12 lanes repairing the roads and as you know, there’s been a long period of neglect, but our focus is prospective solving the problem and they’re being addressed.”
Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis recently revealed the government’s plans to start major road works early next year.
“The Ministry of Works has just produced a plan for the reconstruction of these roads,” Prime Minister Davis told a local daily Sunday. “We will be reviewing it this week and work will start very soon.”
The epidemic of potholes in New Providence and the Family Islands has been the subject of public outcry for years.
Areas that have attracted complaints here in the capital include Wulff Road, Joe Farrington Road and Gladstone Road, among others.
House Speaker Patricia Deveaux, who is also a member of Parliament for Bamboo Town, told the House of Assembly yesterday that the issue of potholes was one that also plagued residents in her constituency.
However, she commended the engineers who have been working tirelessly to address the long-standing problem and asked for Bamboo Town residents to be patient.
“So, I want to say to Bamboo Town that these engineers are working,” she said. “They are not just here to take care of one constituency (and) they have not just Nassau, but they have the family of islands. They are doing a mammoth job. Just bear with them.
“I know that there are a lot of potholes because I drive through my community every other day,” she said. “I drove to go through some of the areas and I know what you’re going through. But I just want you to bear with us because I’m certain that Englerston and Carmichael and Bains and Grants Town and so many other areas have these very same issues.
“But I want you to know that these engineers are working. They’re not just sitting down, and they have promised that - every weekend so they’re working seven days a week to make sure that we’re taken care of,” she added.