Emergency repairs on Conversation Tree Street are set to start this week, following severe damage by a heavy-duty truck.
Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, visited the site on Friday to inspect the damage.
“We will get this resolved and fixed so that this thoroughfare can be usable again. It is being acted on as a matter of an emergency,” he said.
Sections of Sheriff Street were closed to facilitate the ongoing Sheriff-Mandela road expansion project. However, the Minister said heavy-duty vehicles must be mindful of the load-carrying capacity of roads.
“Trucks, cargo haulers, auto cars, tractor trailers that are carrying weight on our roads, there are specifications of tonnage for axle and tonnage for wheels. When we overload the vehicles, rather than the weight being on the axle and on the wheels, that weight is transferred to the actual road,” Minister Edghill explained.
“These are not the heavy-duty asphaltic concrete roads like the Rupert Craig Highway that can carry 40 to 50 tonnes at a time. These are basic community roads.”
To this end, Minister Edghill appealed to drivers to observe the weight limits of the community roads, which are costly to rehabilitate. Further, he said, conducting emergency works pushes back scheduled repairs and upgrades to other roads.
Conversation Tree Street was closed to vehicular traffic on November 18 after the incident.
