Commuters, including businessmen and women or petty traders, who travel from one county to another during this sunny (dry) season of the year, are “catching hell” due to the deplorable road conditions, mainly the 151-kilometer corridor, about 94 miles, from Grand Bassa to Sinoe, through Rivercess.
Grand Bassa is in the west-central, connecting with Rivercess in the southeastern region of the country. But the deplorability of the road during this time of the year is making traveling impossible as commuters, whether business people or not, spend days, if not weeks, by the roadside because of the bad road.
Because of the deplorableness of the road, it has become practically impassable for vehicles or any movable vessel to ply the route. As a result, there are over 30 vehicles stuck in mud, having broken down in the middle of the road.
Most of the operators or drivers spoken to by this paper during a routine from ITI, a boundary town between Sinoe and Rivercess Counties, attributed the breakdown of their vehicles to mechanical fault, due to bad road or deplorable conditions of the road from Sinoe through Rivercess to Grand Bassa.
“We left Greenville, Sinoe County, heading to Monrovia since last Wednesday, November 29, we have not yet reached. We spent over a week now between Rivercess and Sinoe after the town called ITI due to break down with the truck. There are more than 30 vehicles, including trucks, pickups, and others, as you can see for yourself,” Sidiki Kamara of a truck licensed #BT22 noted.
But commercial and private vehicles are not the only movable objects that are stuck in mud on the Grand Bassa to Sinoe road at the moment, earthmoving equipment or yellow machines as well, and caterpillars are not exempted.
Commuters’ optional alternative now are motorbikes, the only means provided if you are single without load or goods to be transported to another distance. However, the Grand Bassa-Sinoe 151-kilometer road is not the only impassable corridor in the country. There are other routes in the country where vehicles are unable to ply, despite the country being in dry season.
However, during the course of this year, the Liberian Government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) signed a contractual agreement to finance the 444-kilometer road from Grand Bassa to Grand Kru County, through Rivercess and Sinoe, at the cost of US$430 million, of which US$50 million has been given.
With the coming of a new regime, we await, mainly those from the southeastern region of the country, when the project shall get underway, reports Throble K. Suah from rural Rivercess and Grand Bassa Counties.
