As 2012 comes to a close, Region 10 projects seem to be in limbo with a large number nowhere close to completion and community leaders fear this is likely to have a negative impact on the 2013 budget and work programme.
This fear was expressed by Regional Chairman Kuice Sharma Solomon and his team of councillors who toured the projects in advance of the last sitting of the Regional Democratic Council.
Solomon and councillors visited almost all the projects being executed under the regional 2012 budget and a few which are being done directly by Central Government on both shores of Linden.
“You bet this is not going to happen ever again”, Solomon vowed having assessed most of the projects. He said that while there were some genuine setbacks experienced by contractors, including the inclement weather, the most severe challenge was that too many contracts were awarded to one contractor.
The most glaring was some twelve contracts where were awarded to local contractor McRae’s contracting company. “What we found was that the contractor has to be spacing himself out with the limited workforce and equipment doing the jobs piece piece”, said Solomon who was supported by several of his councillors.
Among the projects visited were the $15.6m Green-heart Street/Indepen-dence Avenue drainage works which was awarded through the tender board to Harpy Construction under the region’s capital budget for infrastructural development.
Flash flooding
Dubbed as one the best executed to this point having started in mid November, it has the scope to complete 2,490 ft of drains with shoulder works included.
According to the regional Works Supervisor, Patrice Johnson, this project was designed to aid in eliminating the flash flooding which is common around central Mackenzie during heavy rainfall.
Another project that came under extensive scrutiny was the Casuarina Drive Mackenzie drainage and road projects, both of which were awarded to McRae’s contracting company at an approximate $13m altogether. According to Johnson, both projects were way past their deadlines and an extension was awarded to sometime before the end of December.
“This is evidence of one contractor chewing off more than his mouth can hold”, said Solomon.
The drainage work was less than 75% complete while the repairs to be done to the road shown signs of being less than 50% complete. While there was no evidence of work in progress at Casuarina Drive, the contractor and workers were found at another project site at Half Mile Wismar where they were feverishly working to complete a drainage and road project.
“While we are glad that our local contractors are getting contracts they cannot take more than they can handle”, said a contractor.
Construction of the 4th Street, Silvertown road was another cause for concern. The project was awarded to Errol Cush in September 2012. It’s about 50% complete but according to Johnson and Silvertown residents, no work has been done for over three weeks despite excellent weather conditions for the most part.
“This is the kind of problem we are experiencing because we were reliably informed that this contractor was given another contract for close to or more than $300m somewhere else in the country and so he abandon this chicken feed one and gone”, a councillor alleged.
The project to arrest the erosion of a gully soakaway aback of Wisroc was also heavily criticised as it showed signs of erosion reappearing, the use of extra small drain pipes and poorly constructed drains among other problems.
Solomon emphasized that more inspection needs to be done in terms of the works being executed by the region. He added that residents in the community need to be more vigilant when works are being conducted in their areas. He said “… and if they are not satisfied with things that they are seeing, they should stop these works and report it to the RDC.”
Solomon said that considering the time of year most of the projects should have been completed.
“We find it quite contrary when we look at the amount of jobs sometimes given to one contractor. It should be typical for them to focus on one job, so as to complete it and move to the next and this is why there is a backlog of projects still ongoing, so these two areas are what really motivated this walk-about exercise,” stressed Solomon.
Among the other projects checked by the team of regional officials which included Members of Parliament Renis Morian and Vanessa Kissoon, were two projects at the Regma Primary School, the Regional Chairman’s Residence which he has not been able to occupy since taking office, a new fair weather road at Fair’s Rust Mackenzie and one at Cholmondeley Hill bridge among others.
