Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works and Ports, Denise Edwards, has revealed that a safety assessment of the “entire main road network” in Dominica is to be conducted to enhance road safety.
Speaking at a press conference held in the conference room of the Ministry of Finance Tuesday afternoon, Edwards said that the government will be using the already launched Loubiere to Bagatelle road works project as an avenue to conduct a road network assessment throughout the entire island.
Assistance will be provided by the International Road Assessment Program (IRAP) along with Road Assessment Services Limited (RASL) at a cost of £131, 379.49, paid for using part of the United Kingdom’s £300-million infrastructure fund for the Caribbean region.
“Additionally, given the fact that the exercise would require mobilization of a consultant to the island, government decided to take the opportunity to carry out a road safety assessment of the entire main road network,” Edwards said.
Approximately 200 kilometers of the island’s road network will be surveyed by IRAP using a specially equipped vehicle as part of the exercise.
The funds for both of these ventures are provided through the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and administered by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
Edwards added that considering the 120 percent increase in road fatalities between 2009 and 2013 according to the Global status on road safety, the road safety assessment will “guide the prioritization of road projects to yield the greatest impact on road safety.”
“Today, we are delighted to launch the commencement of the road safety assessment. Over the next six to nine months, International Road Assessment Program (IRAP) along with Road Assessment Services Limited (RASL) will be working with the Ministry of Public Works and Ports to evaluate the safety of Dominica’s main road network,” she said.
Edwards said that engineers and technicians within the Ministry of Public Works will be exposed to the tools used for data collecting and processing.
“Once completed, the consultant will forward the report including findings and recommendation to the government for consideration,” she remarked.
The Ministry looks forward to the public’s cooperation with the consultants traverse the main roads to undertake this exercise.
IRAP is a registered charity dedicated to preventing the more than 3,500 deaths and 100,000 injuries that occur on roads every day worldwide.
At the heart of the iRAP approach is a spirit of cooperation. IRAP freely provides the tools to help development banks, governments, funding agencies, automobile associations, research institutes and other non-government organizations worldwide.
Wonderful ! I do like to see grant money well spent on vehicles and consultants. Keep it up !
one of the major issues of the roads here is that the vertical alignment is non existent making the continuity in the road surface rather dangerous for vehicular traffic. this is something i have observed here. we need better road contractors and designers. then again nepotism is what runs this place so the capable people flee while the mediocre persons get the jobs!
If this gov’t truly cared about road safety, by now they would have repaired the large potholes on Rose Street and other roads in Upper Goodwill that have been neglected for over 10 years. In fact, repair is no longer even possible as new roads will need to be built given the deplorable state of Rose Street and other lanes in the area. If the country was broke I would not mind. However, money being thrown away daily and gov’t begging people to bring in business plans to get free money to open bars, sell ice-pop, stock-up shops and do whatever else they want, while the hardworking taxpayers can’t even get their basic needs met by this gov’t.
Boyyy and i used the say the EX Minister for Urban Renewal and Health, Mr. Timothy lives directly opposite the upper portion of Rose Street. But trust me as Roseau North turn blue there in the last election you will NOT get first priority. But now! the NEw Minister for Public Works, lives on the street higher than Timothy in Goodwill. Do you think she also gives a hoot about her own community? i highly doubt.
“Follow the crumbs”, it is high time this gov’t stop this madness. They are there to take care of the entire country and not Labour strongholds. Otherwise, only Labourites should be paying taxes. At the end of the day, we are all Dominicans.
We can start by properly marking the streets of Roseau ,pedestrian crossing marked in yellow can barely be seen, drivers fail to stop on stop sings in Roseau, parking is allowed on pedestrian side walks, and the police walk around the city with there ticket books in hand as a what we use to call [vary] or show off, without citing the violators, this project is just another waste of taxes payers money, across the street from first Caribbean bank you have to walk in the middle of traffic to get to whitchurch cus vehicle are park on the side walk and the police don’t do anything about it, you go to the Roseau market on Saturday on the water front side there should be no traffic near the market once the venders get there goods in, on the north side near the river cars should not be driving on that side on Saturday period.
Implementation is a different story..
How about a Pottersville to Newtown or a Stockfarm road rehabilitation project? Or a Botanical Gardens to Elmshall project. I see they resurfaced the Roseau bridge, but they ONLY did the bridge. Thats it! i mean come on people we are paying a road tax as of 2015/2016 where is that money going to? why cant our roads get fixed.
But Miss Edwards that same road was done in 2010 we
WHAT.? Over £131,000 this equates to over $400,000 EC Dollars to survey the roads of Dominica?
We already according to the PM ,have allocated MILLIONS OF DOLLARSto village councils for road works
Another consultant imported to advise?What do we have officers in the Public works for?
Are we incapable of undertaking any of our infrastructure projects with indigenous professionals.?
Good observation, but that is how it is done, they give you funds and then they take it all back in consultancy.
We need sidewalks!!!! Even if it is on one side of the road. Bike lanes would be nice too… considering we are the Nature Isle I believe sidewalks would encourage more persons to walk and perhaps bike lanes would also encourage a culture of cycling. Just my thoughts.
Padna, our people ensure that a half assed job should be done. When was the last side walk build in Dominica? i see they fixed the one by the Library finally. We need lighting, sidewalks, PARKING LANES!!! and drainage. thats what PROPER roadworks should entail
great news, but it doesn’t take an assessment by officials to show that Dominican roads are dangerous, with all those potholes and LACK of proper road markings and signs, especially near the edges
I guess they’ll see exactly how unsafe these roads are. If that report comes back with any type of good results then 100% this was just show. Our roads are a disaster
Nice initiative. Just hope that locals on the ground will consider the findings.