DAMMAM: Ten percent of construction projects carried out by the Eastern Province mayoralty failed its own quality tests last year. Faisal Al-Thani, head of the mayoralty's Operations and Maintenance Department, told Al-Hayat Arabic daily that “quality assurance” tests are all conducted by the mayoralty's laboratories and cover “roads, bridges and underpasses and buildings”. “17,000 tests were carried out last year on road surfacing and cement materials and ground conditions,” Al-Thani said. “On average, 10 percent of all tests failed, with 12 percent failing in tests on ground materials and stone foundations, and nine percent failing in tests on cement concrete and road surfacing materials.” He said that a range of programs were under way to modernize operations and maintenance, with SR250 million designated to road maintenance and repair and renovation work at junctions and squares, and maintenance of rainwater drainage systems in Dammam and Al-Khobar. “It also includes maintenance work on streets and street lighting in both cities, signs for street names and numbering, and repair work at municipal buildings and facilities,” he said. “Poor road surfacing in nine districts has been removed and replaced, and rain catchment points in low-lying residential districts have been created and pavements repaired on main thoroughfares. Work has now begun on other districts.” He added that work has begun on road repairs to address potholes and cracks in 40 residential areas. “25,000 road surfaces patches covering an area of eight million square meters have been done,” he said. “That's along with 112,000 square meters of work on pavements and central islands of roads.”
