Kuwait Motorists grapple with potholes, uneven surfaces, bridge dividers
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 19, (Agencies): Motorists navigating secondary and main roads grapple with the daily frustration of encountering potholes and uneven surfaces, which have become pervasive issues across the majority of streets. They remain hopeful that the Ministry of Works and the General Authority of Roads will urgently address these challenges, especially after the setback in the road maintenance project carried out by international companies, leading to its eventual abandonment.
The road predicament, persisting since 2018, extends beyond deteriorating surfaces, encompassing problems with bridge dividers and supports on highways. This complicates matters for officials at the Ministry of Works and the Roads Authority.
Informed sources disclosed that over 70 percent of bridge dividers and supports demand immediate maintenance due to the potential dangers faced by drivers navigating these dividers. The ongoing neglect not only poses risks to drivers but also inflicts damage to their vehicles. The sources anticipate that this issue will persist until new maintenance contracts are secured.
While recent highway maintenance contracts included provisions for repairing bridge dividers and supports, these contracts remain unfulfilled. Currently, there are no agreements with the Roads Authority to address these issues, indicating that the suffering of road users is likely to persist.
Concerns are also raised about the potential risks associated with neglecting bridge joints, as failure to address them promptly may lead to future problems affecting the safety of the bridges’ concrete structures, ultimately escalating maintenance costs.
The issue of bridge breaks, endangering the safety of drivers, prompts a renewed focus on the maintenance of concrete walls. Specialists at the Roads Authority emphasize the absence of maintenance contracts for bridge walls since their construction, underscoring the need for new agreements to ensure periodic safety inspections, especially for walls obscured by adjacent trees.
Despite numerous appeals from drivers to the Ministry of Works and the General Authority for Roads, responses have been limited, reflecting the Authority’s weakened capabilities due to the absence of maintenance contracts. Disappointment prevails among road users who initially harbored optimism for the involvement of international companies, only to witness the faltering of proposed tenders.
In a disheartening revelation, informed sources at the Roads Authority confirm that after inspecting and surveying highway bridge joints, 40 percent of one bridge’s joints require urgent maintenance, emphasizing the pressing need for comprehensive intervention in addressing the deteriorating state of the infrastructure.
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