By Laurina B Lormia
(Intern)
Public Works Minister, Ruth Coker-Collins, spoke over the expansion and reconstruction of the 45-kilometre road project from the Roberts International Airport (RIA) Highway to the ELWA Junction.
Coker-Collins said the road project is ongoing until the inauguration, when the new Minister is appointed; then, the new government will take charge.
“It is clear that we are still doing our supervision, monitoring the project, and still doing approval; everything concerning the project is in our control until we hand over to the next government. We are already doing a hand over note that whoever is coming as Minister will not have to struggle,” the Minister stated.
We will be here, just a call away, that whoever the new government appoints there, if you have a doubt about anything, we will explain to you.
According to Minister Coker-Collins, President Weah is still the President until the inauguration, and until he turns power over to the President-elect Boakai, then we will give space to the other people that are coming.
“I want to say thank you to the Liberian people for their patience; a lot of people called me complaining that the road is damaging their cars, so we are happy about the improvement because I think it is a legacy project for the President,” she stressed.
However, “If you are mentioning this project and you don’t mention Minister Collins, then you have said nothing, because I remember in the past, there were so many things said, that this project was not real, it was a fake, but today I’m happy that the Liberian people are seeing the progress that we have been talking about come to reality,’’ Collins maintained.
“We have paved 5KM on section 2, we are now going to be mobilizing the equipment on the section 1, where we will be doing a 10KM pavement, we will work on the first 5KM on one side so that our Liberian people can fly freely, because everybody wants to have a free ride,” she added.
“I’m happy that today, we have taken this road from 2 lanes to 4 lanes plus; like the engineer was saying, you have 4 lanes and also a space where other cars can park, so it shows that it is almost like a 6-lane road.
Meanwhile, I want to thank President Weah, because it is his courage that brought us here today; although we will not have the time to have it completed, but we will be giving the chance to those that are coming in to do their part. Wherever they stop or carry it, and whenever they finish, we all will be around to celebrate,’’ she said.
“We signed this contract for three years with a defect liability of two years, so in total, it is a 5-year duration. We are about to start the other phase of demolition, because people along the road have been paid, as their structures had to give way for the development to go on.
We want the RIA highway road to be completed, and we have gone far in the pavement, so wherever we stop, our new government will conclude when they take power,” the Minister concluded.
