Road-Paving Problems in Maraval

Recently paved road in La Seiva Terrace, Maraval

TrinidadandTobagoNews.com Reporters
May 05, 2010
Updated: May 11, 2010

On Saturday 1st May, 2010, contractors working for the Ministry of Works paved the roadway of La Seiva Terrace, Maraval. Initially, we were somewhat surprised that they choose to pave that road as we did not believe that the road required paving at this time.

Prior to paving the road, the contractors removed the top layer or asphalt, and left the road bare for about a week. With traffic on the road, this left our community very dusty – exacerbating an already bad dust and ash problem caused by the dry season with bush fires in the hills.

The road-paving exercise went into the late evening so we had to wait until the following morning to discover what was actually done.

To our disappointment, the road was paved unevenly with raw, high edges that rose from about two inches to as much as nine inches in some areas. The entrance to our driveway was so high that it became dangerous to enter and exit the garage. We eventually placed a length of 4 x 4 inch steel in the deep slipper drain to help get our car in and out of the garage.

After speaking to a few neighbours who were also were experiencing problems with the roadway, I decided to call the Ministry of Works on Monday 3rd May, 2010, to alert them about our concerns. I was eventually transferred to an engineer who I was told oversaw the road-paving exercise in this are. After speaking with her about our concerns, she promised to visit the area to examine the problems to see what could be done.

Here are some photos to help explain what went wrong with the road paving exercise:

Here you can see that the recently paved road was raised.

You can see how unevenly the road has been paved.

A length of 4 x 4 inch steel was placed in the deep slipper drain to help get in and out of this driveway. The road has been raised by over seven inches at the point that reaches the driveway.

Here is a picture from the driveway that shows what the car has to now mount notwithstanding the four inches square steel that was placed into the slipper drain.

We measured the dept of the slipper drain and found it to be in excess of seven inches.

On the other side of the street the edge of the newly paved road has also created a deep slipper drain that cars can slip into thereby causing drivers to lose control. It also means that cars cannot park as close to the curb as they usually do.

Another picture showing the 'finished' road.

Here we measured the depth of the slipper drain to be in excess of eight and a half inches. Notice how the road is now the same height as the curb.

If they are ever to lift the slipper drains to conform to the new height of the road then residents would have to rebuild the drains from their homes.

Here you can see the difficulty if the slipper drains have to be elevated to suit the new height of the road.

Finally, this image shows how wavy and uneven the broad surface of the road is following the paving exercise.

If you have photos and stories about road-paving in your area, email us at: editors20-news@yahoo.com

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