A story in Thursday's edition reported all residents from Devon Springs Road to the Government Quarry have been told about planned Works and Engineerng road works. Only residents of Devon Springs have been warned that work on their road will take three months. The overall project to the quarry will take more than six months.

Road users can expect more traffic delays as major road work on the South Shore involving areas of Devonshire, Smith's and Hamilton Parishes is scheduled to begin next week.

But yesterday a top Government engineer said all of the residents in the area, which stretches from Devon Springs Road to the Government Quarry, had been told about the work.

And Mr. Trevor Gilchrist, who is Works and Engineering's principal civil engineer of water/sewage, told The Royal Gazette there have been no complaints so far.

The project is a part of Government's scheme to have all water supplies linked throughout the Island, including Watlington Water Works planned and existing connections, by 1996.

Presently, there are no water outlets between the fresh water lens at Prospect and St. George's.

Mr. Gilchrist said the road work due to start on the South Shore will link a pipeline from the water treatment plant near St. Brendan's Hospital to the Government quarry in Hamilton parish.

And the project will involve setting up at least two water truck outlets in Hamilton Parish. The locations have not yet been decided.

Government also plans to set up a small reverse osmosis plant in St. David's which was least served during the drought several years ago.

"Those in St. David's were the ones who needed the water supply most and the ones who were least served,'' Mr. Gilchrist said.

While admitting that the three-month project on South Shore will require the setting up of traffic lights and possibly bring some traffic delay, he said the work will benefit all in the long term.

For not only does the plan promise more outlets for truckers who lose time and money collecting water from central outlets when delivering water to either end of the Island, it also allows utility services to lay their cables while Government puts in water pipes.

Recently completed work at North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish was an example of this, Mr. Gilchrist said.

There 16 separate services, including Bermuda Electric Light Company, Bermuda Telephone Company, and Cablevision cables, were placed in the same trench.

"One of the biggest costs of road work is digging the hole in the ground and resurfacing it,'' Mr. Gilchrist explained. "So when we decided we were going to lay a water pipeline at North Shore Road we contacted the utility services.'' In addition to saving money by laying numerous cables at one time, Mr.

Gilchrist said such a scheme causes less disruption and makes high visibility or tourist routes safer and more attractive by getting rid of overhead power lines.

"Also,'' he added, "by putting cables underground it will make them inherently secure.

"The people from North Shore will benefit from that.'' Mr. Gilchrist explained that once cables and pipelines have been installed, the project's contractors have about four months to get the road back to normal.

After this a separate contractor or Government restores the road permanently, he said.

Mr. Gilchrist further explained that Works and Engineering lays the cables under main public roads because it is more practical in terms of accessibility and maintenance.

Many people will get "enhanced services and some will get new services'' under the coordinated, multi-purpose road scheme, he added.

Admitting there will always be some road work going on, he said in the long-term the work carried out will be reduced. PHOTO MAPPING OUT THE PLANS -- Works and Engineering's principal civil engineer of water/sewage Mr. Trevor Gilchrist looks at plans to improve Bermuda's water supply.