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BARSA, Iraq (January 15, 2008) - Army engineers are conducting a
public works upgrade here, repairing streets and completing
unfinished sewer work.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started work on a Basra
pavement and sewer project in November, said Ferdinand Guese,
project engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region
South District.
The new project aims to complete the paving of various streets
in Maqil, a neighborhood in the northern part of the city, Guese
said. It also entails completing work on an unfinished sewer
construction project, finishing the repair of 20 linear meters of
2-foot-high masonry fence, and repairing a section of drainage pipe
that was damaged during construction of the Basra sewers in
2006.
Alaa, a project engineer with Gulf Region South's Basra Area
Office, said the Maqil road repair project will entail putting a
5-centimeter overlay over the existing 10-centimeter pavement on
the roads.
"The contractor supplies all the equipment, labor and materials
necessary to pave 10,700 linear meters of street with asphalt in
Al-Maqil neighborhood," he said.
Guese said the $1.7 million project will directly and indirectly
provide jobs to more than 75 Iraqis in the city.
"Al-Maqil district ... is in close proximity to many Iraqi
security forces facilities that include the Shat Al-Arab Hotel, an
important Iraqi army facility in Basra city, Basra prison, and
various police stations," Guese said
"After the turnover of security control of Basra province from
the British to the Iraqi army in December, Al-Maqil and its
surrounding Iraqi security forces facilities gained increased
prominence in maintaining control of the area," he said.
The road rehabilitation in the area is seen as a very positive
thing and has the full support of the local population, he
added.
"I'm very happy to see the construction work on these streets
which have been neglected more than 20 years," an Iraqi citizen who
lives in Al-Maqil neighborhood said. "The residents here highly
appreciate the improvements that have taken place in their
neighborhood."
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