Contractor uses own resources to fix town

By KEVIN PAMBA
A ROAD contractor, R & Sons Construction Ltd, has expended its own resources to do drainage work and beautification in parts of Madang town.
Project manager Johnson Kumbe said the company’s management decided to include the added work outside budget as it did not make sense to seal the road surface only without addressing the chronic drainage problem and some beautification work.
“We are proud to announce the additional drainage and beautification works in the Madang town bus stop area have been done at our own cost,” Kumbe said.
The drainage and beautification have become the talk of the town, with residents commenting positively about the site.
Kumbe said R & Sons had to include the drainage and beautification as a professional engineering and civil works company with a reputation to protect.
“We believe in building confidence in public perception as well as meeting our clients’ needs,” he said.
Kumbe said the Madang provincial administration awarded the company two contracts for K3 million each to repair, upgrade and seal roads in the town and Newtown areas and did not include drainage.
“These current contracts were awarded as Proforma Contracts which have a budget limit of K3 million each and that is not sufficient if we are doing a professional job in town, especially the drainage structures,” he said.
“We are facing difficulty trying to channel out all water within the town area because all existing drainage systems are not functioning.
“Most culverts are small and fully blocked and if we decide to replace them with bigger culverts to accommodate the current water run-off from the streets, then we will be forced to raise existing pavement thickness so that we have sufficient cover over the top of the culverts,” the civil engineer explained.
He recommended that sufficient money be allocated for a more professional and competent job that includes drainage repair which can last longer instead of the “band aid” sealing that “lasted for only three months”.
“We call on all concerned statutory institutions within Madang province to look into this matter,” Kumbe said.
He said the duration of the two contracts is eight months each and the company had done 80% of the work within 15 weeks and hoped additional funds were made available for drainage works.