While the lights and median will be completed, the extension of the northern side of Carifesta Avenue will be postponed until after Caricom Day, Supervising Engineer Sherod Parkinson said yesterday.
Work on the thoroughfare, estimated to cost $138 million, began on May 21, and was scheduled to be completed on June 30.
However, while contractors have started to install lights on the road there are concerns that the construction is moving at a slow pace and they would not be able to finish by the deadline.
But Parkinson told Stabroek News yesterday, “The reason why it looks as if it’s going slow is because the mud is on the site and they have started placing the poles and we envisage by next Wednesday we should have all the poles up and should be wrapping up the median.”
Parkinson said that because they have been having trouble with GTT removing utility poles and the inclement weather, they have been forced to postpone the extension of the road.
“We didn’t want to risk not finishing in time for the [Caricom Heads of Government] meeting so we prefer to take on what we could finish and get it done, have the road presentable for the holiday [Monday, July 4] and then continue after,” he added.
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure had advertised in the Guyana Chronicle for the $138 million `urban renewal on Carifesta Avenue: Avenue of the Caribbean’. According to the advertisement, the project was divided into two lots: lighting system and civil works.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson had later said that the work will see the road upgraded with a median and lights and a widening of the road on the northern side. He added that while a project of such a magnitude would normally take about four to six months to complete, they were hurrying in order to finish by the first week in July.
