The overseers of both the delayed East Bank and East Coast four-lane expansion projects are optimistic that whatever works that are incomplete will be finished by the stipulated deadlines.
The Works Ministry’s Manager of Roads and Bridges Department Ron Rahaman has told Stabroek News that the installation of two additional lanes at various points of the East Bank highway will be completed in the third quarter of this year, while General Manager of the Works Services Group (WSG) Geoffrey Vaughn says he believes the work on the East Coast expansion will be completed by June.
Against the backdrop of Vaughn’s and Rahaman’s optimism though, is the glaring fact that both projects have been riddled with complications, which have caused significant delays.
Where the East Bank four-lane expansion is concerned, the agreements signalling the commencement of the works were inked on October 3, 2011, and the work was supposed to be completed around March of 2013. But, work never got underway until March 2013, and as of this month the project is about ten months overdue.
The project, a product of a joint initiative between the Government of Guyana (GoG) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), spans about eight kilometres of road, starting from the Guyana National Stadium at Providence to the Diamond intersection, and costs over U$S17 million. It is being executed in three lots. Lot One, which stretches from Providence to the Covent Garden Water-Treatment Plant, is being done by Dipcon Engineering, while Lot Two, which runs from the Water Treatment Plant to Little Diamond, is being done by Gaico Construction in association with Earth Movers. The final lot, from Little Diamond to the Diamond Intersection was awarded to BK International.
The inability of the contractors to meet the deadline has been blamed on adverse weather conditions, and the hurdles experienced in the removal of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T), Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) utility infrastructural components.
Weather conditions continue to be an issue and it is imagined that the current weather is posing some amount of challenge to the smooth flow of work. An engineer working on the Dipcon leg of the expansion said that rainy weather, which started in the mid quarter of December, is making progress difficult. When he spoke to Stabroek News, workers were installing concrete gutters and road shoulders, without which, he said, the construction of the new lanes could not begin.
He said though that the deadline is reachable, all things considered.
Meanwhile, Rahaman says that most of the utilities that were impeding work have been removed. The telephone company, he said, is the only company with infrastructure left to remove.
In fact, he disclosed, GT&T has taken the ministry to court in an effort to prevent some of its cables in the Timerhi leg of the project from being covered. Rahaman said that for that aspect of the project to be completed, the workers must be able to cover the cables, and that this work will now be delayed until the court matter is decided.
Rahaman also told Stabroek News that while a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been drafted, the ministry has been asked by the funding agency to draft a contract agreement with GT&T to ensure that there is a defects liability period as well as insurance to cover the works.
The existing roads parallel to the additional lanes also have to be repaired before the project is completed and these works will not commence until the new lanes are complete. “There is still a lot of work to be done,” according to Rahaman, who added that contractors which are delinquent in meeting their deadline may face actions as is allowed in the contractual
agreements.
East Coast Demerara
Work on the East Coast expansion project got underway early last year although the contracts were awarded in March of 2012.
The largest hindrance to work along the East Coast is the ongoing competition for aggregate, says Vaughn. Guyana is currently experiencing a construction boom as there have been significant increases in housing, commercial and general infrastructural development. Raw materials are needed in all of these areas, he explained, while adding that there is now a shortage.
He also said that the recently settled dispute between the Works Ministry and the BM Soat Auto Sales was another noteworthy speed bump, but that since the matter has been resolved the work will now go forward. He stated that there were other instances requiring the removal of private property which had encroached on states lands, but that these issues have been and are being settled in a less confrontational manner.
The four-lane expansion of sections of the East Coast highway is also being done in lots.
Lots One, Two and Five are the responsibility of Dipcon Engineering Services Ltd and are about 65%, 70% and 60% to 65% complete, respectively. Falcon Engineering Services was initially tasked with Lot One but the contract, worth $468 million, was terminated after engineers from the Works Ministry found that the contracting firm was behind schedule and was allegedly carrying out substandard work. Subsequently, the contract for Lot One was handed to Dipcon to complete at a new cost of $463 million.
Falcon has since taken the Works Ministry to court for money which it claims it is owed and the matter has not yet been resolved. Before Dipcon could move any further on Lot One, it first had to correct the work done by Falcon. These corrective works, it is argued, is partially responsible for the 65% grading.
The first lot stretches from Better Hope to Montrose, while the second runs from Montrose to Triumph. Lot Five, which was also awarded to Dipcon and is valued $328 million, stretches from Triumph to Mon Repos.
Lot Three, which is from La Bonne Intention to Beterverwagting, was contracted to Courtney Benn Contracting Services and is valued $349 million, while Lot Four, from Beterverwagting to Triumph, was awarded to Compustruct Contracting Services and is valued at $322 million. Both lots are 20% to 25% complete, Vaughn explained. He said that Courtney Benn Contracting Services has experienced some difficulties in attaining the amount of needed aggregate.
Where stone is concerned, Works Minister Robeson Benn has said that the companies in Guyana which offer stone, for example, are unable to meet local demands. On the other side, one supplier, BK International, says that the ministry is misleading the public since the company has more than enough stone to satisfy the local market. The problem, said BK owner Brain Tiwari, rests with the inconvenient nature in which local consumers prefer to conduct business. Last year, he told reporters that many contactors in Guyana prefer to receive goods on credit, and that the company had run up a large credit bill and could no longer afford to do business in this way. Despite BK’s position, the ministry maintained its position.
The sixth and final lot, which stretches from Mon Repos to De Endragt, was awarded to Colin Talbott Contracting Services and is valued at $345 million. This lot is 85% to 90% complete, Vaughn said.
