Tuesday, August 25 2009

When it happened once, it could have been unfortunate. When it happened twice, it could have been coincidence. But when it happened a third time, we must demand answers of our suddenly silent Minister of Works and Transport.

Three times in a little over a year, bridges which were being worked upon under the supervision of the Ministry of Works have collapsed. Two of these were under repairs or expansion, and the third was being dismantled. While the one being dismantled did not cause delays and hardships to commuters, it did cause the death of one of the workers. The other two caused great distress and inconvenience to travellers, especially this latest collapse in the Balandra area.

The collapse last November of the Macoya river bridge on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, caused tremendous pile-ups of traffic along the highway and surrounding roads. However, at least there were “surrounding roads”. The collapse along the Toco Main Road left thousands of people stranded on both sides of the collapse. Residents of north-east Trinidad could not get home, and visitors to beaches and villages over the weekend could not leave the district.

At this stage we cannot accept the platitudes and assurances about how hard everyone is working to get a temporary Bailey bridge in place so that traffic can flow again. There is clearly something wrong in the Ministry of Works which needs identification and resolution. That three major bridges can collapse while the Ministry (or its contractors) is on site working on them is not coincidence or bad luck, or acts of God. The truth is that we should be thankful that only one life has been lost in these three collapses (although several have been lost indirectly by cars flying through the air as they hit the temporary Macoya bridges at high speed). The death or injury toll could have been higher.

When the Caroni River bridge collapsed earlier last year while the Ministry was dismantling it, a one-man Commission of Inquiry was immediately set up, with considerable fanfare and boasts of transparency. Government assured that the findings of the commissioner would be made public. It is now about one year since the report of that commission of inquiry has been in the hands of the Government. Why is this report being suppressed? And we make no apology today for the strength of our language in this matter. Government cannot be allowed to engage in the pre-inquiry grandcharge of “full disclosure and transparency” and then simply pretend that there is no reason to table the report.

No reason was ever given for the collapse of the Macoya bridge on the CR Highway and no report seems to have been commissioned. However, we are advised that the Standard Engineering Specifications for such works require that sheet piling or a coffer dam must be installed to protect the bridge foundations from washing away. The Ministry of Works has maintained a silence on specifically why this bridge collapsed. Surely the public is entitled to know what happened, and who is responsible for the additional costs incurred.

And now we have the collapse of another bridge while under construction. What is most noticeable in this incident — the details of which are yet to be confirmed — is the silence and absence of the usually talkative and ebullient Minister.

We call upon him to address the nation on the issue of bridges. And this address must tell us when the report on the Caroni bridge will be made public.