By Latrishka Thomas
The Ministry of Works is currently conducting assessments of the widespread damage caused to roads across Antigua by this week’s floods.
Head of Roads, Craig Williams, told Observer that engineers and surveyors are actively inspecting the country’s highways in order to provide the Cabinet and the National Office of Disaster Services with a clear picture of the impact of the heavy rains.
Private company Bahamas Hot Mix said they will also be assessing the damage to the two roads they recently completed in the first phase of the Road Rehabilitation Project — namely Sir George Walter Highway and Friars Hill Road — when the inclement weather subsides.
Meanwhile, numerous reports of major destruction to roads have reached Observer.
Photos and videos show chunks of asphalt stripped from roads and deposited onto sidewalks, exposed underground pipes, water seeping through roads, and large potholes being formed, among other damage.
Late last month, the Ministry of Works began extensive road repairs and other infrastructural projects in villages such as New Winthorpes, Urlings, Hermitage, Potters, Hodges Bay, the Rastafarian community at Creek Side, and the West Indies Oil Company.
The workers had also begun constructing a retaining wall along a roadway in Liberta and have executed repairs on the runway at VC Bird International Airport.
