The Public Works Ministry is awaiting word from the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) on the selection of a contractor for the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue expansion project, which is expected to begin in the first quarter of this year.
At a news conference on Friday, Works Services Group Coordinator Geoffrey Vaughn said an Evaluation Report for the selection of the contractor was completed and forwarded to the IDB for its no-objection for the award of the contract. He added that the ministry is hoping it would have the no-objection before the completion of January so it could go ahead with awarding contracts.
The US$24 million project will see a two lane upgrade from Sheriff Street to the National Cultural Centre, from where a four-lane road would be constructed to the junction with Banks DIH.
It will also cater for sidewalks and bicycle paths for road users, along with overhead walkways for school children. These overhead walkways are expected to be situated in the vicinity of schools.
Vaughn noted that they were still debating whether to have an overhead walkway set up at the post office to facilitate senior citizens going to collect their pensions.
The project, undertaken as part of the Sustainable Urban Transport Plan, is aimed at creating a less congested link between the East Coast and East Bank Highways via the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue corridor. Although the initial plan was to make both Sheriff Street and Mandela Avenue four-lane corridors, concerns raised by the business community along Sheriff Street led to the dropping of plans to add two additional lanes to this corridor.
Vaughn also stated that the ministry was looking to develop an Urban Transport Study, which will create a specific diagnostic of the urban transport situation, problems and trends, and provide recommendations on matters of public transport infrastructure, operations, financing and institutional organisation.
He said this was a long overdue study.
Manager of Tech Services Rabindranauth Chandarpal told Stabroek News that it is a comprehensive study which will require considerable time in coming to a decision. He said that it might even take a whole year to devise a plan, considering the complexity of the study.
Vaughn also stated that residents from Better Hope to La Bonne Intention are presently the beneficiaries of improved drainage with the preparatory works for phase one of the four lane upgrade to East Coast Demerara Public Road. With the addition of concrete drains, the residents are experiencing less flooding in their communities, he said.
However, he added that the ministry faced several issues with the expansion of the highway, including shortages in supply of materials, such as stones and cement, delays in relocation of utilities, delays due to property or encumbrances on the road reserves and poor project management by the contracting firms.
Meanwhile, there are plans for new highway lights along the East Coast Demerara railway embankment. Works have started and are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2015.
Also addressing reporters, Minister Robeson Benn declared that the ministry performed creditably last year in the face of budget cuts, shortages of materials and increased workloads,
…Our performance has been very credible,” Benn said, while adding that the ministry is continuing to work at improving the learning curve of contracting firms.
He said it was a part of its policy to integrate Guyanese contracting firms and that it was important in developing the country.
It was also stated that the ministry also plans to continue to focus on its staff’s development by exposing staff members to modern technologies in construction and engineering.
Workers at the ministry underwent training at local and overseas workshops under a $4,455,000 budget.
Permanent Secretary Balraj Balram said the Ministry, which was allocated a budget of $17.483B, spent $15.041B, gaining an overall financial delivery of 86.03%. There was a 99.78% of current delivery and an 83.74% of capital delivery, he also noted.
Public Works was given a current provision budget of $2.503B, of which $2.497B was expended, and a capital provision budget of $13.091B, of which $10.655B was expended. On the other hand, $0.347B was expended from the contingencies advances budget of $0.347B, and some $1.542B was utilised from the excess expenditure budget of $1.542B.
Capital subvention was given to the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Transport and Harbours Department, Maritime Admin-istration Department, Cheddi Jagan International Airport Corporation and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority.
