Road users will have to wait until early next year before they can again pass freely near the United States Embassy in Young Street, Kingston because the mission is trying to ensure that in addition to infrastructural security reinforcement, the building stops sinking and is rid of a termite infestation.
“I have already been pushing our people. We are doing our best to open up the street that is currently closed, on or about January 1, 2016,” US Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway said when asked by Stabroek News on Friday.
More than half of Young Street going west to High Street has been occupied for months as the rehabilitation works proceed. The works were to be completed months ago.
Holloway informed that when the embassy started rehabilitative works last year it was discovered that the building was sinking and it threw construction works behind target.
“When we initiated the project, one of the issues we have here is settling and our building is not as stable as we think it was. One corner is going down the other is going up. One of the things we have to do is drill pilings down… and that is much harder to do than we thought it was going to be.
Holloway pointed out that the initial machines brought in by the embassy to drill the piles could not do the job and that in turn had the project set back for many months. He said that they currently have the required equipment and are drilling the piles correctly. Said Holloway “So that the US Embassy will be here for many, many years to come. It will not sink on one side or the other.”
The US envoy explain-ed that much of the work being done was to upgrade infrastructural durability and ensure the security of embassy staff. He made make reference to the 2012 attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, which saw terrorists unleash an assault on that building killing four persons including the Ambassador. He stressed the importance of the works, given that the building is 34 years old and that a lot has changed with security and technology.
While most of the work focuses on structural security the main reason the building was up for repair was because of a termite infestation which saw the bugs destroying most of the wooden façade.
“When we built this embassy in 1991 we tried to make it look like the local architecture more like a building from the 50s or 40s or something and the wooden façade we have discovered that termites are eating our wooden façade,” the ambassador noted. The termite infestation he said, was also possibly due to the using of the less durable pine wood.
He said that that the wooden façade will be kept but will be replaced with better treated local wood “so hopefully the termites will have to go some other place,”
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure has already inquired about the road impediment, he said.
While the road or at least a part of it will be opened by January, Holloway said that the embassy will continue construction on its site for the next two years.
He expressed gratitude to road users and said he wanted Guyanese to know that his country appreciates their patience and tolerance.
