Dear Editor,
During a recent tour of the Hope Canal Project to assess construction progress, Dr Ramsammy, Minister of Agriculture stated that the deadline for completing the works was now June 2013 after several completion deadlines have already been missed.
This appears to be a tall order as over 60% of project funding has already been expended and less than 40% of work on the three major contracts has been completed.
Before the proposed Hope Canal could be functional at design capacity, three other components of works will have to be completed simultaneously with the canal, sluice, road bridge and Head Regulator. These components comprise a foreshore channel with adequate depth and width which has to be dug from the sluice northwards across the foreshore to discharge flood waters from the conservancy through the sluice and into the Atlantic Ocean. Secondly, the sluice is being constructed inland of the existing sea defence.
Therefore the Ministry of Public Works will have to re-construct the existing sea defence to tie it in with the newly built sluice; and thirdly the Head Regulator is being built north of the existing conservancy dam and a channel will have to be dug with adequate embankments to connect the existing conservancy dam to the abutments of the newly built regulator.
These necessary works are not part of the contracts which were awarded in the year 2011. Therefore additional funding in excess of the $3.6B already earmarked will have to be provided if this project’s completion is really on the horizon, and is not to be dubbed another white elephant because of the lack of resources to complete the project to perform its design function due to escalating costs, poor planning and construction management problems.
Finally, as Minister Ramsammy noted, our local engineers have been able to excavate the flat/soft pegasse soil to construct the canal and its embankments to the amazement of critics. This is not an accomplishment per se, as excavation in this type of terrain has been well established in Guyana over the years. The critics, however, are concerned that pegasse soil, a material of low strength and high porosity as a building material, instead of selected fill for the canal embankments poses serious safety concerns. Minister Ramsammy consequently should elicit assurances from his engineers and then tell the public that there is no safety concern to worry about, as the stability of the pegasse embankment for the Hope Canal has been established and it is being constructed with a generally accepted factor of safety.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
