While repairs to the bungled Good Hope stelling on the Essequibo Coast are ongoing, further modifications to cater for the roll-on roll-off ferries being sourced from the Chinese may be needed.
Works commenced recently on the $431 million stelling to make the structure operational and the administration noted late last year that the cost to do this might be in the vicinity of $50 million. This newspaper was told that the repair works are being undertaken as even as a recent report, submitted by two engineers who were selected by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to review the works undertaken at the stelling last year, is still at the stage of being examined.
Stabroek News has made numerous attempts over the past several months to obtain information from the Office of the Prime Minister on the findings of the report submitted by engineers Bert Carter and Marcel Gaskin in mid-2010.
Persons there said the document was being studied. The report contains information on the faults identified with the design work carried out by several relevant stakeholders, including Canadian company SNC Lavalin, which designed the stelling; construction company BK International and the ministries of Local Government and Public Works, prior to the unveiling of the berth.
The team also made recommendations which were expected to be utilised in correcting the flaws at the stelling and in anticipation of the Chinese vessels. A source said additional works may be required when the new vessels arrive.
Stabroek News was told recently that the report was expected to have been used as a yardstick for the undertaking of repair works, which concentrate on the ramp that buckled in April last year when the completed stelling was unveiled.
The administration had announced during the last quarter of last year that two roll-on roll-off ferries were being built by the Chinese and were expected to be completed before the end of this year.
The vessels are expected to ply the Essequibo River routes served by the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD).
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon told the media last week that “the unfortunate sequence of events” at the stelling was studied by the administration and focus was correcting and repairing the damage, thereby making the stelling serviceable.
He said he pointed out late last year that trying to allocate blame had unleashed a series of interventions by the Prime Minister and Cabinet and “for all intents and purposes was essentially inconclusive.” Luncheon stated that blame was being shifted across the board, from the designer, the state agency that executed the design, the contractor and the sub-contractor, among others.
He said that as would have been expected, “no one ever stood up and said he/she will take the blame.” He added, “it was appropriate not to make that the dominant activity but to correct the structure.”
Construction firm BK International and the Ministry of Public Works had blamed each other for the problems with the stelling, following the collapse of the end beam of its loading ramp. According to BK International head Brian Tiwari, it was the ministry’s modifications to the stelling that “messed up” the structure.
The company said it had completed the project to the exact design and specifications as requested.
Luncheon had said in November last year that the Prime Minister had been tasked with gathering the stakeholders involved in the design, supervision and construction of the stelling to examine their roles. “No one hand could be judged to be clean. Indeed, the design had flaws, construction had flaws and supervision had flaws. What I did say is that this is not the time to just point fingers and allocate blame,” Luncheon said.
The Works Ministry has denied that it was to be blamed for the state of the stelling and said it was the T&HD that took over a facility “which was inadequate to handle the typical flotation as well as the arrangement to get onto the vessel for the heavy truck traffic from the Essequibo.” Minister of Transport Robeson Benn stated that the Ministry of Local Govern-ment supervised the construction of the Pomeroon/ Supenaam ferry stelling and later issued a certificate of completion to BK International even though the completed project had obvious defects.
The ferry stelling, now inoperable because of structural problems, was completed to the tune of $431 million of contract approved funds.
An additional $17.2 million was spent by the Ministry of Public Works in modification works, Benn had said.
The modifications included a drawbridge and a pontoon, both of which Benn said were “absolutely necessary” because the ministry took over the stelling “with great concerns.”
