Dear Editor,

Can someone please help me with a bit of information? An engineer, roadwork technician, contractor, Government official, anyone?

Over the years, almost every time the work to repair potholes in the roads begins it is a seemingly drawn-out process.

The workmen come, cut out some kind of rectangle or polygon in the road surface, and leave it for days, weeks even, before they come back and actually patch them.

Is this a requirement that the cut-outs “set”, as we say in Jamaica, or must they be allowed to rise like a loaf with yeast overnight, or is there some other mega-scientific methodological explanation.

Don’t get me wrong, I am glad they are fixing the roads, but I only hope it can be done more efficiently.

They leave these neat craters in roadways, which are no improvement to the odd-shaped potholes that preceded them. Oftentimes these polygons are worse than the potholes as they are deeper and more cavernous.

So, please, let us know why this step is in the fixing process, so that we can understand why it happens this way. Maybe if we understand better the process, the sight of these neat rectangles would cease to be a source of annoyance, frustration, front-end and back pain.

Afronose

bigzy_2000@yahoo.com