Project Manager of the Georgetown Solid Waste Management (GSWM) Walter Willis invited contractors and prospective bidders on Friday last to a pre-bid meeting and site visit for the final closure of Le Repentir dumpsite at the Mandela Avenue location.
The Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) reported that garbage was last deposited at the site at the end of January and cell number one was then opened at the new Haags Bosch landfill, aback Eccles for garbage disposal from the municipality and the 15 Neighbourhood Democra-tic Councils (NDCs) in Region Four.
According to GINA, Willis informed the bidders and the media that work for the final closure entails the continuation of the access road from Mandela Avenue of Cemetery Road and, an extension of Broad Street. It also entails making a temporary access on the top of the dumpsite so that the contractors can take the clay up there and cover the cell and the moving of the western ramp.
He recalled that the ministries of Public Works and Local Government had intervened to bring some semblance of order to the site three months ago when the garbage had piled up almost to the Cemetery Road entrance.
However, he noted, the ramp which comprised approximately 60,000 cubic metres of material is still there and will have to be removed and placed on cell three and part of cell two that was reopened.
“It will then be levelled and compacted and then covered with clay. We will also be putting in the vents, some of which you will see that we have already done in cell two and part of cell three. We will be covering the side slopes and the top so there should be no adverse effect or environmental nuisance to the residents in and around this area,” Willis explained.
The pre-bid meeting, GINA said further, was also an opportunity for the project manager to address whatever concerns the bidders might have as well as give them an opportunity to view the situation at Le Repentir, to know the conditions so that any queries and clarifications sought will be known by each and every individual bidder.
He stated that the bidders can also submit the written minutes of the pre-bid meeting, which will be part of the final contract.
According to GINA, the final closure is on March 29, at 09:00 hrs in the boardroom of the National Procurement and Tender Administration. It will take approximately 14 days to evaluate and to make recommendations to the government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Willis advised the prospective bidders that government would like to meet the deadline and in order to do so they should make provisions in their submitted rates for any overtime work, night work, bonuses or whatever other costs or situation might arise. However they must bear in mind that they are bidding in competition with others.
In response to a question posed by a bidder on terms of payment, Willis responded that there is a mobilization advance rate of between 15 and 20% with payments being made fortnightly.
“I don’t envisage a problem with payments on this project, which is totally financed by the IDB,” he said, adding that this component costs approximately US$18 million.
The project manager said further that other interested parties can peruse the bid document where it is available at the Ministry of Local Govern-ment before committing themselves.
Haags Bosch
Work at the new landfill site is progressing as smoothly as expected but there is still additional work to be done, Willis informed the media, adding that the contractor has requested until August to get the final set of work for cell one to be completed.
The Haags Bosch site on the East Bank Demerara, when fully operational, will comprise four cells, each with a lifespan of 10 years.
Questioned about the delay at the new site due to the one excavator working there, he stated, “The contractors are free to write and say what problems they are having with the reception of garbage at Haags Bosch, it is only then I can deal with it. They got to be specific.”
He said that whatever delay there has been or will be in the future, his office has advised the operator at the location that the time should be given back to accommodate for whatever time was lost.
“That will be the method that we will use to deal with the situation because we have allowed between 10 to 15 minutes for the acceptance, that is, the weighing and travelling down into the cell, dumping, coming back on to the scale and moving away and the contractor has a good opportunity to keep track of this,” he advised.
He said this method is workable as it will allow for documentation of the amount of garbage, in terms of weight, that is being deposited at the site.
Government has allocated an additional $800 million for further work at the new site in the 2011 budget, GINA added.
