By Sue-Ann Wayow
PITCH upon gravel.
That is the reason why Trinidad and Tobago roads are collapsing and not because of the incessant rainfall according to political leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Edward Alexander.
Alexander on Monday did an analysis of a pothole in Diego Martin, one of the numerous in the country.
In a video, Alexander showed the pothole saying, “Pitch on a layer of gravel. All of our roads, they (government) have fooled us. They have robbed us.”
He said, “The only reason the roads in Wallerfield and in Chaguaramas and the North Coast, the only reason that they last forever is because if you go and dig up those roads, you would see underneath those roads have actual foundation.”
Going back to ancient times, Alexander said the roads built by the Romans and other civilizations still exist because of how they were built.
Referring to the Manzanilla Mayaro Road, parts of which have completely washed away, he said, “We have had that road since 1985. You mean since 1985, they couldn’t put a foundation on that road.”
Showing the pothole filled with mud water, Alexander said, “Our contractors become billionaires, selling us roads and giving us this, gravel and soil with a layer of pitch.”
Alexander also knocked the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) for repairing roads with the same material and the same manner in which they were constructed.
On Monday, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said during a media conference that Trinidad and Tobago was experiencing an unusual amount of rainfall which the current infrastructure was not built to handle.
