RALPH BAN­WARIE

Kall­co em­ploy­ees start­ed work on a tem­po­rary by­pass road along­side the col­lapsed Man­zanil­la/Ma­yaro Road yes­ter­day, in or­der to bring re­lief to thou­sands of res­i­dents who have been in­con­ve­nienced af­ter the main road­way through the com­mu­ni­ty col­lapsed dur­ing re­cent flood­ing.

Heavy equip­ment, in­clud­ing back­hoes, ex­ca­va­tors and steam­rollers, were seen bring­ing and of­fload­ing ma­te­r­i­al at the site that was be­ing de­vel­oped for tem­po­rary the road yes­ter­day.

Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan, who promised that com­muters tra­vers­ing the Man­zanil­la/Ma­yaro route would soon get some re­lief, said yes­ter­day he was hop­ing the work will be com­plet­ed in good time.

He said he was stick­ing to his word, as work is al­ready in progress for the tem­po­rary road ad­ja­cent to the dam­aged Man­zanil­la/Ma­yaro Road. He said a Bai­ley Bridge will be in­stalled where the swamp cross­es the ma­jor road­way.

How­ev­er, he said re­pairs to the main Man­zanil­la/Ma­yaro Road will take some time, as his min­istry is work­ing to en­sure the new road­way is built to last. He said to pre­vent fur­ther in­con­ve­nience to cit­i­zens, who are now fac­ing longer trav­el hours and pay­ing more mon­ey to do so as well, they de­cid­ed to build the tem­po­rary road ad­ja­cent to the dam­aged Man­zanil­la/Ma­yaro Road while they are weigh­ing op­tions on a per­ma­nent fix.