Bejewelled Highways Mr Minister?

The article went on to state that vehicles using these super expressways would be capable of travelling at speeds of up to 110 kph or 68.35 mph which, is in effect 30 kph or 18.64 mph in excess of the legal speed limit on highways in this country.

If we consider the quantity of road deaths that currently occur with the existing speed limit at 80 kph/50 mph, it should not be too difficult to project an estimated figure of at least twice that amount at the proposed new speeds suggested for these expressways.

Perhaps the new road plan is designed to incorporate a decline in the unemployment level of several hundred per annum?

Another very interesting feature of the article was the proposed estimated cost of construction of this network which was quoted at between $40 million and $60 million per kilometre or 0.621 mile (just over a half mile).

This indicates that there could be a variation of cost as high as 33 percent for each kilometre or half mile. It might be reasonable to conclude that these new highways will be constructed on diamond foundations and paved in gold or otherwise that, there will be a whole new group of multi millionaires with fat Swiss or London bank accounts at the end of the project.

But then we have petro dollars to burn, so why not make a few of the boys rich at the expense of the poor and dispossessed who cannot afford the basic amenities of life?

Which brings me to yet another good old saying that goes like this, “To he who has to him shall be given and to he who has not will be taken even the little that he has.”

We are certainly living in a world of sorely misplaced priorities.