Monrovia – Senator Alphonso Gaye of Grand Gedeh County has written plenary of the Liberian senate requesting the body to place budgetary allocation for roads rehabilitation and maintenance in Liberia under the Armed Forces of Liberia engineering battalion.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
In his communication, the Grand Gedeh County lawmaker claimed that considering the level of excellent jobs being performed by the AFL on the corridors from Zwedru to fish Town and their recent interventions made on some roads in the country, he is convinced that the AFL, when furnished with the requisite budgetary allocation, can effectively handle road rehabilitation better than private companies who are being entrusted to do so.
“Distinguished colleagues, it is, therefore, important for the National budget Committee as well as the joint committee on ways, means, finance and budget of the Legislature to visit areas where the AFL’s engineering team is currently working to enable them to make an informed decision.
“In this regards, I humbly plead for the appropriation of this plenary to mandate its committee on ways, means and finance and budget to ensure that annual budgetary appropriation for roads rehabilitation/maintenance should be removed from the Ministry of Public Works and be placed under the Ministry of Defense/AFL’s Engineering team.”
The communication was sent to the committee on Public works chaired by Senator Henry Yallah of Bong County.
Military engineers all over the world are tasked with the wartime role of mobility, counter mobility and survivability in support of all other arms of the armed forces.
In peacetime, they are actively involved in increasing infrastructure and national development.
Accordingly, since its activation in 2007, the First Engineering Company has continuously supported other arms of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and the Government of Liberia in infrastructural development.
In its civil outreach strategy, Engineers of the AFL have rehabilitated some critical bridges along the main road leading to Todee District, which is historically noted for its flourishing economic activities in agriculture and trade.
Todee had been a major economic hub for the production of palm oil, rubber and char coal but its Infrastructure dwindled as a result of challenges posed by deplorable road conditions. These conditions adversely inhibited upsurge in agricultural productivity and trade.
The Todee belt is also renowned as a zone of excellence when it comes to the promotion of education. The District hosts the famous Presbyterian Todee Mission School, the Killings-worth Mission School, among others.
The road’s rehabilitation has increased the flow of traffic, (vehicles, motorcycles), reduced traveling hours and greatly diminished the risks earlier associated with vehicular movement as a result of the once life-threatening route.
Additionally, the AFL is heralded for their community relation that has given impetus to the incremental rise in the exchange of goods and services within the Todee District, thereby, contributing to improving the economic condition of traders in general and the district dwellers in particular.
Soldiers of the Engineering Company (21A) have been engaged in civil works and other technical related training under the mentorship of Pacific Architecture Engineering (PAE) and UNMIL’s Bangladeshi Engineers (BANBATT 12).
AFL engineers have teamed up with other engineers from the Ministry of Public Works, Liberia Community Infrastructure Program (LCIP) and BANBATT 12 in the assembly of bailey bridges between Sinoe and Rivercess Counties and in Grand Cape Mount County.
Within the environs of Monrovia, the AFL Engineering Company, in partnership with the Ministry of Public Works, completed a total of 19.3 kilometers of critical roads to give unhindered access to dwellers of the beneficiary communities.
The communities which benefitted from the road intervention included Kebbah-Diggsville stretch(10km), Chicken Soup Factory Community(1.6km), the LPRC Road(1.8km), the Necklace Town Community Road(2.6 km), the Swagger Island Community Road (1.9 km) and the St. Francis Community Road (1.4 km).
The Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) Community road in the suburb of Paynesville was given attention by the AFL engineers as a part of the force’s outreaching strategy as a “Force for Good.”
In Bong County, AFL Engineers rehabilitated a 1.8 kilometers stretch of road leading to the Gbarnga Ebola Treatment Unit. In addition, the engineers reconditioned the approximately three(3) kilometers by twelve(12) meter wide stretch of road that passes through central Gbarnga, particularly commencing from the intersection of the Gbarnga Administrative Building northward towards Ganta City.
In collaborative efforts with their UNMIL’s BANBATT-12 counterparts, AFL Engineers rehabilitated some critical spots along the Monrovia-Gbarnga Highway.
The AFL Engineers further demonstrated their sophistication by rolling out the architectural plans and material estimate for the reconstruction of Camp Vi, formerly occupied by units of the Bangladeshi Peacekeepers serving in Gbarnga. Camp Vi is capable of catering for troops accommodation, office, and recreational building as well as an equipment and motor bay for the acquired equipment and plants from the People’s Republic of China.
The AFL Engineers actively engaged in the construction of the EBK (Edward Binyah Kessely) Clinic Extension and the boathouse construction in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
The AFL Engineers played the lead role in partnership efforts with their United States counterparts in the construction of seventeen (17) Ebola Treatment Centers around Liberia.