Bushrod Island – With barely two months to the end of the dry season in Liberia, there are concerns about the rehabilitation of major roads on Bushrod Island and other parts of Monrovia.
Roads in Bushrod Island, one of Monrovia’s largest suburbs, are ruins, making the movement of vehicles and commuters pretty difficult.
Large potholes are visible at nearly every intersection or junction of Bushrod Island. One spot that is particularly deplorable is the stretch of road between Clara Town and the main entrance of the National Port Authority (NPA).
There are also bad spots around the famous Duala market, Caldwell junction, Logan Town, Sayon Town, Jamaica road, Clara and Vai towns.
The bad state of these roads continues to contribute to the worsening situations citizens are faced including traffic congestion which slows economic activities.
The Aged-old Problem
The Ministry of Public Works has consistently assured residents that major roads across Monrovia would be rehabilitated during the dry season. But these barrages of promises do not come to fruition most of the time leaving residents in agony.
“This place can be very bad during the rainy season and now we are in dry season and they are not seeing it. They want for people to suffer again before they start to fix it,” said a lady who identified herself as Miatta Kiadii.
She claimed government is not utilizing the dry season to recondition major roads across the country.
“Every year they will waist crushed rocks here-and every year the same hole will be here. Government needs to fix roads once and for all; or let them fix the roads for it to last longer,” she stated.
Traffic congestion
“Take for instance, from Duala to Broad Street, I am not supposed to spend more than 15 minutes but because of the big, big holes you see on the road, sometimes I take up to 40 minutes to one hour just to reach on Broad Street.”
– Alfred Sayon, 42-year-old taxi driver
Many commercial drivers say the bad roads cause traffic congestion and impact commercial and other activities.
“Take for instance, from Duala to Broad Street, I am not supposed to spend more than 15 minutes but because of the big, big holes you see on the road, sometimes I take up to 40 minutes to one hour just to reach on Broad Street,” Alfred Sayon, a 42-year old taxi driver said.
Sayon said that the situation is also contributing to the constant damage of their vehicles.
“We have to visit garage almost after every two days either for under-carrier problem or bomber dragging. Nothing is the cause, but the bad roads,” he added.
Public Works’ Reaction
Madam Kaustella Kialain, MPW Assistant Minister for Operations, said plans are underway for the rehabilitation of roads in the area.
Minister Kialain added that the commencement of rehabilitation works on the Bushrod Island road remains one of the major priorities of the ministry during this dry season.
“We have a robust maintenance plan for this dry season that is nearing the completion of a procurement process. This procurement process does take into consideration the Bushrod Island-which is from the Gabriel Tucker Bridge to the St. Paul Bridge,” she said in a cell phone chat with FPA.
“I cannot give you details of what we are procuring for now; but you can get the advertisement that will inform you about what we will be doing there. It is our intention; that is one of the black spots in Montserrado County. The Bushrod Island is one of our major priorities”.
It remains unclear what are the contributing factors for the delay in the rehabilitation of major roads in Monrovia during the dry season.
However, the government has embarked on the construction of several kilometers of neighborhood roads in Monrovia and other parts adjacent.
The latest road that is being constructed is the Banjor Community road project in the township of Virginia.