Fiji Roads Authority has confirmed that the two Tropical Depressions, TD04F and TD14F over the last two months has resulted in record torrential rain that has led to deteriorating road conditions across the Northern Division.
FRA Chief Executive John Hutchinson says that maintenance crews in the Northern Division are struggling to maintain the road conditions during this prolonged periods of rain.
Hutchinson says the wet road network and continuous rain experienced in the past few weeks is delaying the Fulton Hogan Hiways ability to carry out repair work on roads.
He says that reports of water logged roads, buses being bogged down, flooded Irish crossings are some of the issues that FRA and Fulton Hogan are having to deal with.
Hutchinson says the FRA has also received concerns about logging operators carting logs on these roads and worsening road conditions.
Fulton Hogan Contract Manager North Ryan Couchman says continuous rain over the past few weeks has made it extremely difficult for them to deploy their road crews to badly affected areas.
Couchman says on days when there is a break in the weather, Fulton Hogan Hiways’ 150 odd staff are on standby to carry out quick repair works in affected areas.
He says the continuous downpour across the Northern Division also makes it hard for them to transport heavy machinery to affected areas as they risk more damage to affected roads.
Couchman says some of their equipment such as rollers and graders can weigh up to 10 to 15 tonnes and if they take it to these areas, they will only make matters worse, which is why they need dry conditions if they are to effectively repair these roads..
He says they need the roads to be dried out to be able to apply good aggregate onto the road, and then grade and compact them.
Hutchinson says that crews have been taking advantage of gaps in the weather however there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to restore road conditions.
He says FRA is asking members of the public to understand that they cannot grade wet roads, they cannot patch potholes in the rain and they cannot place equipment such as rollers or graders on affected roads as it will make the situation worse.
Some of the roads affected included Qelemumu Road, Vunivutu Road, Naiviqiri Road, Nawaido Road, Banikea Road, Dradramea Road, Lutukina Road and the Delaikoro Road
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