Ebrima Sillah was speaking to journalists on Saturday, as he continued on day-two of roads project inspection with visit to the roads in Central River Region north. The contractor, Cornerstone Construction, a Gambian owned company, is actively working on two of the three section roads.
"As you know, today is day two of our ongoing tour of road projects across the country. And I have to say that I'm extremely, very, very happy with the level of progress that we have seen in the various projects that we visited, particularly in the CRR north Lot 2, where we are right now from Raneru going all the way from Karantaba to Futifila. So far, almost three kilometers have been sealed completely, and we are hopeful that within the next couple of weeks, this particular stretch will be completed. It’s very important road, because this place was a non-existent road."
Minister Sillah recalled that when he last visited the area, it was extremely difficult to access the inland communities that are off the major highway.
"But we thank God today, we can see how the road is now very good, very well done, and the communities are very appreciative of this. Remember, this is a borderline with the Saloum Sine end of Senegal. And in addition to the roads, this particular project has also done some corporate social projects in this particular community by providing water borehole services to certain communities here and now, we can see a lot of development especially in the next village, particularly that is on the border end, a lot of animals from Senegal actually coming to this particular village for their drinking."
To this end, he spoke about the impact the road project has on the people of these communities and thanked the contractor, Cornerstone for doing a phenomenal job.
The Works Minister also spoke about their soon-to-launched 250-kilometer of road works, targeting the entire country, saying in that project, they intend to consider those Gambian contractors, that have performed extremely well in their previous projects to serve as an encouragement to other contractors to also buckle up.
Jonas Agyemang, project manager of Cornerstone Construction Company working on EPC Lot 2 roads, explained that the project comprises three different components, combined totaling 50 km.
"Currently we are standing on the Karantaba to Futifula Road. We’ve been able to finish all the earth works, all the concrete structures, and we are currently doing the surface dressing, which comprises a first layer and a second layer after the prime coat."
Agyemang also revealed that they have been able to do up to 3.5 kilometers both first and second seal, pointing out that ‘then we've also primed from zero to kilometer five around Raneru area.’
"Currently, that’s where we are and overall, we have about 68% of works completed."
Sulayman Sumareh Janneh, the deputy managing director of the National Roads Authority (NRA), expressed delight on the progress made on the lot 2.
He expressed delight with the quality of work on Lot 2, saying this is a Gambian contractor and he's one of those that have actually come up with some innovative methods to construct roads.
"As you can see, they're one of the few that are on schedule, and could possibly finish their project ahead of scheduled as well, too. And if you look at the quality as assessed, they're doing a very good job. Essentially, they are not those ones that just jump out and do things you know, then test it out and ensure that it does meet the basic criteria that's been set out for them to abide by."
DMD Sumareh-Janneh also spoke about plans to have water collection points, whereby rain water will be collected in some areas and forced to discharge to those areas for holding purposes.
He also talks about measures put in place to ensure proper drainage systems that would help discharge water effectively.
Elsewhere, works are steadily progressing on base course processing on Karantaba Road, and drainage structures are being constructed on the Laminkoto-Banni-Younna-Kunting Road.
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