When you have the “Colonel” of Public Works come out to talk about the poor shape of our roads, you know we have a situation in our hands.

Now, I like the Colonel: he’s straightforward, to the point, shoots from the hip and, unlike most politicians, he answers questions. You may disagree with his answers, but that is another story.

When you see a country’s infrastructure starting to fall apart, it can tell you a lot about the state of its economy.

Case in point, Bermuda’s roads!

Heavens knows, our roads have been deteriorating for years, and we’re not aware of any plans to repair them anytime soon. According to the Colonel, a review is under way to find additional funds to fix them — another way of saying higher taxes are coming.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen our streets in such bad shape as now. I suppose one of the main reasons, besides lack of funds to fix them, is that they are constantly digging them up and half-heartedly repairing them after the work is completed.

It’s the shoddy workmanship when patching up the hole or the trench. Sometimes they leave the road worse than it was to begin with!

As a bike rider, I’m for ever on the lookout for what I call the “mono track”. This is where they have trenched a two-foot-wide channel in the road for a pipe or something and filled it back about an inch lower than the rest of the road surface.

When your front wheel hits this “mono lane”, you’re stuck in this gutter, and to try and get out is not at all easy — one wrong turn and you will be kissing the asphalt.

There are also other “victims” that have fallen foul because of the shoddy state of our roads. The other day, after a bit of shopping in a Hamilton supermarket, I placed my groceries carefully on the floor of my bike in front of me, ensuring my Vermouth and vodka were secure, as I like my martini stirred not shaken.

I had only a short trip down the road, but unfortunately, after a few feet, I hit a bump, and my carefully placed bottles went flying, and I ended up with a roadside Dirty Martini. Yet another casualty falls victim to our dilapidated streets.

However, I have noticed not just potholes or uneven roads. It’s a road that seems to be coming apart. Long cracks in the centre or at the edge of the road, as if the footing underneath is starting to fall away.

Case in point, look at the bottom of Brighton Hill Road on the south shore side; you can see the road is beginning to sag again after they spent quite a lot of time — and money — fixing it a few years ago.

Of course, driving on some of our streets that resemble the “Road to Baghdad” doesn’t just take its toll on the driver and their cargo, but the vehicle also takes a beating. What with less and less repair work being done on our roads, I fear that more and more of our money will be spent at the repair shops, buying new tyres, shocks, etc. Not to mention all the sore rear ends ... and I’m not talking about my bike.

However, like anything else on this island, nothing will be done until it’s too late for some poor soul who will meet with an awful accident or until we lose a GP car in one of these sinkholes ... of course, it could be a while before anyone notices they have disappeared.

On a footnote, the Colonel was quoted as saying, “I navigate the same roads as everyone else, experiencing the bumps and potholes at first hand.”

The problem with that, Sir, is when the state of the roads damages our means of transport, we have to pay for repairs out of our own pockets. Not sure it works the same with your GP car.