MIDH to Public: Stop Stealing Our Signs!
Evondale Moody
As if the challenges with debris and construction were not enough, the human element is also compounding the problem for the ministry, not only at the mile seven rehabilitation area, but also at other ongoing infrastructure projects countrywide. Moody told us that people are stealing signs from areas where road works are happening. This could result in preventable traffic accidents, he pointed out.
Evondale Moody, Engineering Coordinator, MIDH
“Whenever we put up signs, some of the signs are stolen at night, so we have an issue there, replacing these signs because we have to pay the contractor if they keep stealing the signs. We have to ensure that we have the best traffic management as we can going through that area. We know it’s a hazardous area, so the idea is to try and expedite those piling works as quickly as we can so that we could open back the road as quickly as we can as well. I cannot pinpoint who is stealing the signs because it’s occurring at a number of our projects that we’re currently implementing. We have the same issue on the Coastal Highway. We have a similar issue on the Philip Goldson Highway that we’re upgrading from mile twenty-four to the border. We have two contractors in the north and they’re encountering the same problem whereby we install the traffic signs so that we could manage the traffic movement going through the construction area for the betterment of the motorists and the public at large. However we keep having these signs stolen. Sometimes they steal even the temporary bumps that we put in place and those have a significant cost as well. The idea is to put those bumps in place so that we could slow down the traffic movement going through the construction zone but if we keep having that issue then that will create a problem. I don’t think it’s other small contractors stealing the signs, I think it’s just persons wanting the material because the signs that are fabricated use aluminum material or a galvanized material and that could be used for household items as well. So we’ve noticed that that has occurred because we’ve seen the signs sometimes laying by in people’s yard. Some use it as comal. It’s very important that we have those signs in place, especially during the night where you may have persons that don’t know about the construction (while) passing through these areas and might come at a speed that they don’t have sufficient time to slow down and that may result in an accident. So it’s very important that we encourage the public to leave the signs there. They’re for the betterment of all of us.”
