We Have a Problem with the Roads

The engineer who designed the drainage on this property did a really poor job.  ALL of the water with the exception of about 5% comes down one ditch which goes past our driveway. The work done in this development was substandard and the roads were never finished to Panamanian standards.  These roads were to have a final topping put on them which would have formed the crown but that never happened due to the developers refusal to spend any more of our money on it. That is why these roads have never received the approval of the local Department of Highways (MOP).  As you can see in this picture below there is no crown on the road and the water in a heavy rain will go down the center of the road washing all of the loose gravel off with it.  You can see the path that the water took to the ditch. 

The water collects in only one ditch, this one below to the left.  Then it turns the corner and goes under the roadway and comes out in front of our house.

The ditch below on the left is the final run for the water.  Unfortunately this year there was a particularly heavy rain which washed out a bridge on the Interamericana Highway.  This same volume of water overwhelmed the drainage system here and the roadway above and below (seen from both ends) became the new ditch.  The water poured out of the ditch at the top of the picture below and headed down the road.

It is difficult to show it here but when that happened the water washed underneath the tar and gravel topping on the roadway and undermined it.  What will happen now is that the next heavy rains will continue to wash out the sand and gravel below the topping and create a big hole that will be very difficult to fix properly.  I am in the process of getting 3 quotes for the work necessary to rectify the matter.  It will involve a new topping for this section from the end of the road in the picture above to the end of our driveway. Also eventually we are going to have to add a second culvert under the roadway at the end of the first ditch to the right when you enter the development and add a crown to the roadway in the picture where I first pointed out the lack of a crown.  Not what you wanted to hear but this reinforces the need to create a contingency fund which we currently do not have.  We have $2000 set aside in the budget for construction and hopefully it will be enough to take care of the first problem.  We do have another problem but I will save that for another post.....luego