Travellers to the Lethem rodeo yesterday reported that the road is in a terrible state and an accident on a bridge near Kurupukari stopped heavy vehicles for many hours.
A truck filled with groceries damaged the bridge about 45 minutes from the Kurupukari crossing on the Lethem side. Reports say that the driver traversed a weak part of the bridge instead of going straight down the middle. The bridge broke just as he was about to make it over and the truck was left hanging off the edge.
Traffic built up and the truck was tied to the bridge to prevent it from going over. Smaller vehicles were able to squeeze past the truck after a wheel was removed from the vehicle. Several vehicles were grazed as they tried to squeeze pass.
This occurred around 2pm yesterday, and up to 8 last evening the larger vehicles were still stuck, waiting on another truck to arrive to pull the truck off of the bridge.
The larger vehicles include all the big buses such as Intraserv, a fuel tanker and canters.
Reports say that because of the terrible state of the road the trip is four hours longer than it should be.
The road had been in poor condition last year after heavy flooding swamped it and cut off Lethem for days from fuel and food supplies. There had been calls from the Lethem business community for government to undertake repairs that were more permanent rather than seasonal.
Bids for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the Linden to Lethem road were only opened on March 29 this year.
The bids for the project, which is being overseen by the Ministry of Public Works, were opened in the boardroom of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).
The project has been divided into lots, and the engineer’s estimate for Lots 1, 2 and 3 are $48,815,500, $53,300,000 and $89,879,600, respectively.
Lot 1 is for the paving of the section of the road from Wismar to 48 Miles Mabura Road, while Lot 2 is for the paving of the road from 48 Miles Mabura Road to 63 Miles, Frenchman Junction Siparuni to North Kurupukari. Lot 3 involves the section of the road from South Kurupukari to Lethem.
Two companies, Mekdeci Machinery and Construction Inc (MMC) and Narendra Latchmin, submitted bids for all three lots at prices lower than the engineer’s estimate. The bids submitted by MMC were: $48,716,500, $52,130,000 and $88,261,350 for Lots 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Narendra Latchmin’s bid for Lot 1 was $32,064,000, its bid for Lot 2 was $14,020,000 and its bid for the third lot was $39,490,700.
The most expensive bids came from contractor Hassan N Pasha, who bid for all three lots. For Lot 1, he submitted a bid of $271,343,000, while for Lots 2 and 3 the bids were $476,800,000 and $510,747,500, respectively.
SYMS General Contractors Inc also submitted bids for the three lots. The company submitted bids of $31,366,000, $43,300,000 and $105,956,000.
Another company, Vivekanand Dalip Enterprise bid $126,705,000 for Lot 1 while for Lots 2 and 3 its bids were $83,000,000 and $114,684,000, respectively. BK International Inc also bid for all three lots, with $85,565,000 for Lot 1, $70,000,000 for Lot 2, and $93,842,000 for Lot 3.
Omai Gold Mines submitted bids for Lots 1 and 3, with the bids being $120,000,000 for both lots. P&J Civil Works submitted bids for Lots 1 and 2 – $57,288,000 for Lot 1 and $84,081,450 for Lot 2.
The government has been engaged in discussions for years on a paved road for Lethem but despite many promises there has been no progress. There is an expectation that the Government of Brazil will help to finance the road in the light of the bridging of the Takutu River.
