Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol urged all road construction companies throughout the country to pay close attention to quality to avoid contract termination.
Chanthol made the call while leading a delegation to inspect construction progress on national roads 146B and 148 in Preah Sihanouk province, according to the ministry’s Facebook post on June 7.
“[Sun Chanthol] inspected the automatic concrete mixer, which can build 500m of road per day up to 26cm thick.
“He also … inspected the construction site for the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville expressway at the intersection of Road 146B,” it said.
Chanthol also reminded the public to respect traffic rules, refrain from speeding and overloading their vehicles which he said could cause damages to the roads and fatal accidents that consequently drain the national budget.
National Road 146B starts from an intersection with National Road 4 crossing provincial road 148 and ending at another intersection with National Road 4.
The road has a total length of 43km and was contracted to be built on March 10 last year and scheduled for completion in August of 2022.
The project was built by a branch of the China Road and Bridge Cooperative in Cambodia under the road infrastructure development project in Sihanoukville, the ministry said.
Last weekend, Chanthol decided to terminate a contract with Korea Consultants International, which had won a bid to repair a 54km stretch of National Road 3 from Kampot to Veal Renh commune in Preah Sihanouk province after finding that the company did not follow technical standards.
Kong Sovann, a public health specialist and director of the International Safety Fund Programme, said that surprise inspections of roads under construction without informing the contractor in advance was a good step towards improving road quality. But he said the focus should not just be on new construction.
“It is one thing to build the roads to the required standards, but if there is no expansion of the budget for driver’s education programmes and enforcement of road traffic laws to be widely implemented along with the new construction, then lowering the number of deaths and serious injuries from traffic accidents will be difficult,” he said.
