Dear Mr. Editor,
I enrolled at the Faculty of Technology to do the General Technician Diploma in September of 1974. One of the first courses I did in the program was CIV 100. Among the topics taught by the lecturer Eng. S Singh was Production of Concrete.
Mr. Editor, a resident of my community Beterverwagting and Triumph sent me a complaint on Saturday (26th August) over delays in the progress of a road under construction, this was accompanied with a photograph. The crux of the resident’s complaint is that the operation has been stalled for over a month. This is evident from the photograph which showed that the BRC fabric that is in place exhibited some degree of rusting.
I mentioned some of the inconvenience residents are experiencing because of this work hold up on the Buxton Morning Time Show yesterday Monday 28, August.
Guess what? The Contractor with alacrity poured the concrete last night.
I mentioned above that I was taught the rudiments of concrete production to highlight that anyone who has a modicum of technical knowledge about concrete production would know that using rusted steel in the production of reinforced concrete is a NO NO.
This is not the first time the community have experiences poor concrete works by this contractor. He was made to redo a tarmac at the BV Primary School, The Regional Engineer, the Staff students and their parents can attest to the veracity of his lacks. The tarmac in question displayed many indicators that the contractor was out of his depths, as
- There was segregation of aggregates – sand and gravel dislodging from the concrete mass – an indication of poor mixing and or insufficient cement in the mix.
- Evidence that there was too much water in the mix, surface scaling ….
However, it is not surprising that after that earlier sloppy job (that I am aware of) that he is still the recipient of government contracts. He is the PPPs African strong man in the community and on the NDC. This road contract
was among those shared out immediately before the last LGE. I am talking of those mini contracts shared to Africans to entice votes for the PPP.
Mr. Editor what is painful in all of the above is that the PPP will announce that they spent X amount of monies in my community. What they will not say is that they know that the monies spent were not intended to benefit the residents/community but are transfers to their cronies who are incompetent.
Your truly
Elton McRae
