Another minister shown the fool

Trucks don’t break water mains

Saturday, April 19 2008

THE EDITOR: I write in response to a published statement by Minister of Public Utilities, Honourable Abdul-Hamid Mustapha, that “road paving equipment breaks underground water mains. The minister is wrong, and I hope that the Association of Professional Engineers (APETT) joins me in correcting him.

The asphalt loaded trucks and the paving equipment are no heavier than readymix concrete trucks, water trucks and gravel-laden trucks that traverse our roads daily.

Water mains are buried at a depth sufficient to prevent them “breaking” under heavy trucks of any kind. Broken water mains are the result of old, clogged, rusted water mains. If we refuse to acknowledge the cause of our problems, how can we ever correct them?

 
PETER O’CONNOR
Cascade