Mr. Speaker, Members of this Honourable House, like all residents of these Islands, will vividly recall the extremely heavy downpours of recent weeks. Whilst the heavy rainfall could indeed be described as showers of blessings, providing much needed relief during a period when there had been less rainfall than normal, it also led to instances of flooding, damaged walls, eroded streets and the like. It is appropriate, therefore, that I apprise Honourable Members of the role played by the Ministry of Works and Engineering in cases like these and how the Ministry’s various crews maintain the Island’s infrastructure on an ongoing basis.

Mr. Speaker, the mandate of the Highways Programme within the Ministry of Works and Engineering is to maintain the public road infrastructure to ensure the safe passage of motorists and pedestrians. This mandate embraces all work associated with the planning, design and construction of road schemes and includes activities such as resurfacing, drainage, signage, markings and bus shelters. It also includes the provision of technical advice to other Government Ministries and agencies on highway related matters, the overall management of the Island’s public roads and assisting citizens with their private improvement road needs.

Mr. Speaker, the condition of Bermuda’s public roads, although arguably worse than we would wish for a number of reasons, including the impact of more and much heavier vehicles, construction vehicles in particular, is certainly among the best in the world for a small jurisdiction like ours. Additionally, the quality of the current asphalting materials being placed on our roads today is of the highest quality and can easily compete with the roads of North America and Europe. In this regard, we wish to advise that the Ministry of Works and Engineering undertakes a comprehensive grip testing survey of all the Island’s public roads every three years to ascertain their effectiveness in dry and in wet conditions. The last testing in 2006 revealed that all of the public roads in Bermuda were of a satisfactory level in accordance with current internationally accepted highway design standards.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members will be interested to learn that there are approximately 130 miles of public roads for which the Highways Section within the Ministry of Works and Engineering is directly responsible. For our public roads network, there is a rolling four year resurfacing schedule that is reviewed and adjusted each year. Additionally, there are some 150 miles of private roads for which the Ministry is not directly responsible. The Ministry’s policy on resurfacing is assessed by a number of factors:

• road usage, including the type, size and number of vehicles;
• the road’s relative importance to the Island, for example, whether or not it is a main arterial road;
• the road’s skid resistance in relation to its location;
• the last time the road was surfaced; and
• the overall condition of the road surface.

Mr. Speaker, the following minimum performance measures for the Highways section are in place:
• resurfacing of ten kilometres (6.2 miles) of public highways annually;
• maintenance of 5 safety school zones annually;
• road marking of 40 kilometers of road centre line annually;
• repairing six bus shelters annually; and
• building of 150 feet of new sidewalk annually.

Mr. Speaker, the Highways Section had resurfaced some eleven kilometers (9.69 miles) of public roads by 31st March, 2008, thereby exceeding its established performance measure by some 50%. Members of the public will know that major resurfacing was recently completed along North Shore Road from Shelly Bay to Bailey’s Bay and along Middle Road from Watlington Road West to Cavendish Road. Additionally, they will know that major resurfacing is currently underway along Middle Road from Chaingate Hill to Store Hill and the intersection at Middle Road and Harrington Sound Road [Flatt’s Hill]. Very shortly, resurfacing will commence on the stretch from Belmont Substation in Warwick to the southern roundabout at Trimingham Hill. Members of the public will also be aware of the significant improvements to the school safety zone at Francis Patton Primary School.

Mr. Speaker, whilst the motoring public is always filled with praise upon using the newly resurfaced roads, we call upon them to exercise patience whilst the paving is in progress, including full adherence to all road safety signs and other advisories. In particular, motorists are reminded not to proceed when the light is red.

Mr. Speaker, I now turn to the recent flooding experienced on our Island. Recent rainfall on the Island has been very high and on two occasions in particular, the volume of water to fall from the heavens has been exceptional. Let me share with Honourable Members a statistic that is likely to overwhelm them: climatology tables on the Bermuda Weather website revealed that on Tuesday, 6th May, 2008 – and all Honourable Members will recall that day vividly – some 250,000 gallons per second fell on the Island, totally some 900 million gallons of water. Yes, 900 million gallons. All will agree that that’s a lot of water!

Mr. Speaker, when storm drain devices are created for roadways, the design is based upon a standard capacity of storm water runoff along the roadway. In such designs, the rain fall intensity is used together with the acreage of roadway. This determines the size of the storm drain required for that section of road. Since rainfall intensities vary, the storm drain devices are designed for an average rainfall intensity that has been recorded over a number of years. Therefore, should rain storms exceed the rain fall intensity design for the roadway, the storm drain devices will be overwhelmed with the result that there will be flooding of the surrounding area. Certainly, that was our experience during the very heavy rainfall of 6th May, 2008. Flooding may also be attributed to high tides which slow down the drainage of storm water runoff. High tide was also a factor during the recent incidents of flooding.

Mr. Speaker, it is of course critically important that storm drain devices are regularly cleared. Over time, these drains are inevitably clogged by various forms of debris, including fallen vegetation. The significant increase in construction sites around the Island has also led to construction debris being washed into the storm drains, with resultant blockages. Once blocked, the drain’s ability to function as designed is severely hampered. A number of storm drains along public roads were clogged at the time of the recent heavy rainfall and the Highways Section has renewed its commitment to ensure that such drains are cleared of debris on a regular basis. The Ministry requests that construction sites arrange to shore up their building material so that it does not wash into the roadway. The Ministry also encourages members of the public to remove vegetation debris from the public roads once they have completed pruning their road side trees and shrubs, as these activities are the most common and single largest contributors to blocked drains in Bermuda.

Mr. Speaker, we also call upon persons who live along private roads to ensure that the drains are maintained in a satisfactory manner. Currently, the Ministry of Works and Engineering provides storm drain devices on private roads to assist the residents with their responsibility. These storm drains are designed to steer storm water runoff directly into the ground water to overcome flooding on their estates. The associated cost is carried by Government; however, the landowners are required to request this assistance in accordance with provisions of the Private Roads (Improvement) Act 1969. Costs may vary and with the limits on the private road budget, not many drains can be developed during each fiscal year.

Mr. Speaker, for properties located near such places as Bernard Park and South Road south of the Botanical Gardens, flooding results from the hide tides; when the tide is high and the rain fall intensity has increased, flooding will occur. With respect to the Pembroke Canal area, particularly in the area of Serpentine Road, the Ministry of Works and Engineering has been actively engaged in a comprehensive cleaning operation in the open channel of the canal to allow continuous flow. The work is currently ongoing, but is at times impeded by refuse being deposited into the canal, a circumstance that exacerbated the recent flooding in the area. The Ministry of Works and Engineering therefore requests that any debris found in the canal be reported immediately in order that it might be removed.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members and the people of Bermuda generally may be assured of the continued commitment of the Ministry of Works and Engineering to maintain our roads at a high standard and to do what we can to mitigate the impact of extra heavy rainfall on our roads system.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, JP, MP
Minister of Works and Engineering

Friday, 23rd May, 2008