AN angry councillor says he is being driven potty by the length of time it has taken for his road maintenance suggestion to be reviewed ... as other regional countries have already started using the mighty machines he championed.
The Southern Municipal Council was the first in February 2023 to propose buying at least one of the high-tech vehicles, which doesn’t require long stretches of road closures and keeps the road-crew driver in the safety of an air conditioned cab.
It has been presented by its chairman Abdulla Abdullatif, who has also suggested opening a hotline to allow constituents to contact the authorities to report pothole problems in their areas.
“My proposal has been ‘under study’ for the past 15 months, while other GCC countries have all taken it up,” said Mr Abdullatif. “It is ridiculous that we are debating this proposal, when the government could have made huge savings in time and money by bringing new hi-tech maintenance machines into service.”
Mr Abdullatif said it would cost BD100,000 each for four machines covering Bahrain’s four governorate, if the advanced-features models were purchased. Basic models are available for around BD38,000, the GDN understands.
“One operative could carry out the work currently being undertaken by a whole crew,” said the campaigning council leader.
The machine cleans out the pothole, sprays it with an adhesive, fills it with asphalt, and, most importantly, compacts the ground to form a permanent patch.
“The country probably only needs to buy one vehicle and offer the pothole patching service through a 24-hour hotline,” he suggested. “However, I prefer that each governorate has its own machine, so if we go for the advanced-features then it is BD400,000 for all, again reasonable and within financial reach and wouldn’t see maintenance needed for a very long time.”
He pointed out that the technology has been successful in the City of Calgary in Canada where reports suggest that one repaired more than 3,500 of the 5,000 potholes in the city in only two months.
Works Ministry roads planning and designs director Maha Hamada believes the proposal portrays a ‘wrong impression’ that potholes in Bahrain are currently left unattended for long periods without being fixed.
“We take a maximum of a week to fix potholes and are in direct contact with contractors to step in whenever we receive a complaint from councils or individuals,” she said.
“If a new machine would help save time and money, however, we will look into the matter but it shouldn’t give the impression that we are inefficient, because reality proves otherwise.”
The proposal will now be reviewed for a second time by Works Minister Ibrahim Al Hawaj.
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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