Mamoral residents get new bridge

After waiting for four years, residents of flood-prone district of Mamoral in Central Trinidad will now benefit from a new bridge which was officially opened for use on Saturday by the Ministry of Works and Transport.

The project replaced one the wooden bridges in the rural district which was damaged in the 2016 floods.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said the heavy rains and severe flooding of 2016 caused a delay in the project and a re-assessment of the engineering for the bridge had to be done.

“The flooding of 2016 would have done a lot of damage and because of that the bridge took a little longer to complete. We had to go back to Cabinet to re-scope the project and very soon we will be able to deliver another one.

“This bridge is part of a phase one project where there were 13 bridges to be fixed, the last bridge in this package is another bridge in Mamoral. The package came at a cost of about $19 million when completed.”

Sinanan said this project was part of a bigger project – the landslip and bridges programme – with a portfolio to remove all the wooden bridges and to assist local government with their bridge repairs as well. Work in phases two and three are currently underway.

The minister added that there are also road works across the country that has been ongoing since 2017, in which about 700 to 800 roads have been earmarked for repairs.

“We do have a road rehabilitation programme and that is all based on funding. Once we have the funding then we prioritise the different areas,” Sinanan said.

Sinanan also took the opportunity to dismiss claims by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal about discrepancies in the awards of contracts for the Curepe interchange and the East/West corridor traffic alleviation project.

He said, “The Curepe interchange was completed in time and within budget, almost 50 per cent less than the original budget, pre-2015.

“I noticed Dr Moonilal in parliament yesterday (Friday) indicated that we butchered the contracts and took out certain pieces of it to give the impression that the contracts were not a saving of $200 million.

“That entire statement is false. He also indicated that we went into the Chinese bond to complete the paving and that again is false. The total project including all the paving and additional roads came in at a budget of $219.5 million.”

The budget for the mega-project was originally valued at more than $421 million.

He added that compensation and relocation of people for the construction of the Curepe interchange has been going smoothly, with one more claim out of 14 to be submitted.

Also present at the opening ceremony were outgoing MP Maxie Cuffie, PNM general secretary Foster Cummings and PNM councillor Derek Le Guerre.