He pointed out that lack of manpower is part of the constraints that the contractor faces, as he travels to Senegal and Guinea Bissau to bring young people to do works that Gambian youths should be doing for their own country.
“We solicit support from the chiefs and local communities to work with the ministry, with NRA and with the contractor to help with the recruitment process within the local communities.”
He added that young people need to know that the government is building these roads from their own tax funds and as a result, the government would have been happy and prouder to see its own people engaged and benefiting from their own tax money.
The Resident Engineer for the Nuimi Hakalang loop and secondary roads, Vincent De Paul Atanga, in presenting the project, said the two roads consists of the main loop that starts from Buniadu to Albreda and from Albreda to Bafuloto and Kuntaya, which is the main loop with the total length of 55.5km.
He added that as at now, they have engaged the contractor to start working on securing the already works achieved considering the fast approaching rainy season, and to make sure that all the box covers are in place and function during the rainy season.
In addition, he said securing the box covers would also help to avoid water-ponding on the road and would also maintain the diversion in a motorable condition.
Momodou Senghore, managing director of NRA, said during the studies of the project, they envisaged that they were going to get enough material around the Hakalang area that would fit within their specification but unfortunately when they started, they realised that good material that would fit the base cores and the sub-base were scarce.
As a result of the above, he said they are looking at ways to strengthen the available materials in their possession and also remain within the haulage distance because in the contract, haulage distance was pegged within certain kilometres and if one has to go outside that, it would cause more challenge for the contractor.
“As it stands right now, we are looking at engineering solutions to counter all those challenges and one of the solutions is to stabilise the use of sand to be able to have the strength specified and not have to pay additional for going outside the specified kilometres specified as haulage distance.”
According to the NRA MD, it is very important to take account of that in construction as challenges are inevitable. However, he said, they have engineering solutions that they were working on to solve those challenges.
Dwelling on the time frame for the completion of the project, he said the work is still within the twenty-six months (26) contract signed, with an excess length of about 84.5km. “So therefore, they are pushing hard on the contractor as stipulated to finish within schedule.”
He emphasised some of the issues faced during the project such as haulage and importation of basalts from Senegal. “We would sit round the table once we get to the 26 months and discuss with the minister, also with the contractor in collaboration with the consultant to see what measures we can take putting all those challenges into consideration.”
Talking on frequent road accidents in the country, the NRA MD said: “When we build roads, we make sure the engineering part is done with utmost professionalism but the safety aspect is also prioritised. The synergies would be there, as well as the markings and other structural forms like speed bumps which would be created to make sure drivers don’t over speed.”
