THE EDITOR: The Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) recognises the efforts being made by the Ministry of Works and Transport to address the problem of our deteriorating road infrastructure as recently reported in the press.

It is heartening to see these infrastructure projects actually commencing at the beginning of the dry season. The Minister of Works is also on point in identifying three main factors that contribute to the "stress" on our road infrastructure as follows:

1. WASA - the utility's leaky infrastructure means it has to keep digging up the roads.

2. Funding - the highways require annual maintenance.

3. Overweight vehicles.

The JCC wants to add a fourth item, which is the lack of proper roadside drainage infrastructure, and this only for the sake of emphasis, as we know that the ministry's engineers are aware of this problem as well, but they are severely constrained by funding as identified in item 2, above.

The problem of "overweight vehicles" falls under the Transport Division of the ministry and Minister Rohan Sinanan was quoted as followers in March 2022 regarding the enforcement required:

'With the new vehicle inspection technology and hand-held devices that officers have, we can identify these trucks…once a truck is identified on a route it was not licensed for, then penalties can be administered to the truck…Because those vehicles are in part to be blamed for the damaged roads.'

A report from the Transport Division via the minister on the efficacy of these measures in reducing overloaded vehicles would be useful going forward to quantify the persistence of this transgression.

The pervasive problem of leaking WASA water mains is well known within the Water and Sewerage Authority, by the line Minister of Public Utilities, and by the public at large. Significant expenditure will be required to upgrade the network of leaking pipes throughout the country, as approximately 50 per cent of the water produced by WASA is lost due to leakage.

In the meantime, the only way to optimise the benefits that can accrue from repairing leaking mains would be to implement smart metering at the main junctions of the existing pipeline networks, tied to supervisory control and data acquisition systems and water distribution networking software. This would provide a real-time picture of where the leaks are occurring, enabling WASA to focus its limited resources on critical repairs.

This is especially critical in central and south Trinidad where "unnoticed," leaking, buried mains can easily lubricate the prevailing poor clayey soils, resulting in landslips that are detrimental to the road infrastructure, as well as the nearby structures.

Intelligent systems are required to save water, save money and save our roads and adjacent structures in the medium and long term.

On the issue of funding, the JCC advises the Government to operationalise the Public Procurement and Disposal of P