YOUR VIEWS

Andratx Town - Something “Fishy” Going On?

AN urgent investigation is required as to why Andratx Town residents have been denied direct access since June, all for a stretch of road measuring a little over 200 meters.

The short length of road is that between the roundabout at the bottom of the high street and the petrol station next to Eroski - the ONLY direct access road to the town from Palma. There is a diversion via the Andratx bypass road towards the port and then another diversion as the upper high street is also closed at the Soller turn. Both sets of road works have been ongoing for 4 months and are repairing road and footpaths.

The inconvenience and expense are considerable. To get to the petrol station or Eroski, you must take the bypass road from the port, travel down the Andratx hill to the Camp de Mar turning, do a “U” turn, travel back up the hill and continue past the bypass road to where the roadwork start by the petrol station. Returning home is just as convoluted as you must first head towards Palma, then the first chance to do a “U” turn is again down the long hill to the Camp de Mar junction for another “U“ turn.

The return detour route adds 5 kilometres to the journey for me and can take over 20 minutes at busy periods.
The only reason a contractor would take over 4 months to repair 200 meters of road is if they had a time and materials (T&M) contract - the longer it takes, the more they get paid.

In the real world, T&M contracts are only given where the size and scope of the job are NOT known, such as a burst underground water main etc as you are effectively handing over your cheque book to the contractor with a T&M contract. Where the size and scope of the contract ARE known (such as the road works in question), a fixed-price contract would be tendered for and awarded the cheapest believable tender. The incentive to the contractor is to finish as quickly as possible and make more profit.

Someone has awarded a contract to repair 200 meters of road that would close off the main road for over 4 months (work is STILL ongoing). I believe the Council most probably gave a T&M contract meaning that they are either simply naïve OR the contractor is totally incompetent AND/OR the person(s) awarding the contract is on the unofficial payroll of the contractor. Any way, an independent urgent investigation is required to establish is this incompetence or corruption at work!

Mark Masters

Andratx