With an approach slab to the $350 million Hope Canal Bridge rotating away from it, the government faces a significant repair bill as questions mount over how the defects liability period expired without the contractor, Dipcon of Trinidad being asked to remedy the problem.
The East Coast Demerara bridge, part of a huge drainage project, was commissioned on February 15, 2014 amid much fanfare by then president Donald Ramotar.
In recent months, a particular approach to the bridge has settled significantly, creating a separation from the bridge and posing traffic woes.
Asked about the defects liability period, Frederick Flatts, Engineer and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) within the Ministry of Agriculture, told Stabroek News last week, “That period is long past.”
“Not as far as I am aware,” he further responded when asked if the contractor was ever approached pertaining to remedying the fault. Flatts added, “I am not aware that the contractor made any fault.”
Ramotar told Stabroek News on Sunday that it is the current board of the NDIA that has to be held responsible as under his presidency the past board had withheld a portion of the contractor’s payment which could have been used towards the defects but the current board released all.
“The last Board which was under my presidency had withheld what you call ‘Retention Money’ and that would have gone towards remedying the problem at the bridge,” Ramotar told this newspaper.
“However, I understand that this new board that was set up under the current administration released those monies… now for whatever fixes they will have to take it out of the taxpayers’ pocket,” he added.
The Hope Canal Bridge forms part of the four-pronged $3.6 billion Hope Canal Project which includes a Northern Relief Channel, which is 10.3km in length from the sea defence embankment and extending to the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC); a high level outfall sluice; a conservancy head regulator; and a public bridge.
The contract for the bridge was awarded to Dipcon Engineering to the tune of $$349.6 million with consultancy for the entire project provided by CEMCO Engineering and SRKN’engineering, in association with Mott Mc Donald pegged at $64 million.
Stabroek News has been trying to contact the management of the Trinidadian-owned Dipcon over the past month for comment, to no avail. Two weeks ago a woman answered the telephone of the Coldingen, East Coast Demerara branch but would not give her name. She took this newspaper’s numbers and promised to return a call “when the boss comes” but never did. At the Herstelling, East Bank Demerara location a man said he was not authorized to speak for the company but could not say who could or point Stabroek News to any management person. Calls to the Onverwagt, West Coast Berbice and other Dipcon locations kept ringing out.
And while the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has pledged to correct the defects, estimated to “take a lot of time and money”, some commuters are not only peeved about the daily humbug the structural defects bring but that those responsible seemed to have gotten off “scot-free”.
Long line
“Every morning I’m coming down is a long line back way up there because of this bridge and you have to leave early if you want to get to town by a certain time,” Daniel Portsmouth told Stabroek News as he pointed to an area stretching over three hundred yards from the bridge.
“I serious, and is since this bridge done build we complaining about it but nobody ain’t listening… Look at it, the road separating from the bridge bigger and more big every day. What getting me more vex is that you pay these people all this set of money to build the bridge then got to come back to fix it? No man, that ain’t right because is money from me and you pocket, that gat to come out again and fix it and I am sure, yes I could bet you. Them things could right?” he questioned.
Flatts explained that while persons have been complaining about their daily plight in crossing the bridge and bemoaning the state of it, there was nothing wrong with the bridge itself. He pointed out that because there has been lots of settling of the soil under the approach slabs, they have “rotated” which sees them shifting away from the bridge structure.
“There are approaches that means before you get to the bridge proper, you have parts leading to the bridge. It might just be, 20, 30 [or] 40 feet, we call that the approach. And there, we do [have] a concrete slab both sides. That is very normal for a bridge. However, it appears that the slab that was placed there was not long enough. As a result, it is rotating, meaning that the part that is further away from the bridge, is settling excessively and the part that is right there at the bridge proper, that part is coming up. So the whole thing, one part is going down and one part is coming up, that is what we call rotating,” he explained.
He said it was too soon to assign blame to any person or entity as an analysis of the bridge has not been done.
“The Ministry of Public Works [Infrastructure], because once the bridge is finished it is their responsibility to maintain it, I don’t think that they expected to be working so soon on it …but this has come shorter than expected. They will be working on that bridge this year to correct it. In the meantime motorists are advised that as they approach the bridge they should slow down,” he said.
“If something goes wrong, for one to know who does wrong, one would have to carry out a study to determine that. In any case, a situation like that is not left to any one individual but suffice to say that, nobody has so far been held responsible,” he added. During Stabroek News’ visit to the bridge, motorists passing complained, even as they drove past, about the defect and hindrance it caused to their daily travel.
Eon Chance who lives at Dochfour explained that drivers of heavy-duty vehicles have to take additional precautions when crossing the bridge. He said that he has heard of many accidents, involving especially persons who are not familiar with the separation from the bridge.
Another motorist Bissoondyal Ramkishore stopped to lament his daily frustration in crossing the bridge as he said that it is a potential hazard. As he was speaking, the driver of BRR 6142, shouted that while he could not stop “they need to fix the damn bridge”. His views were echoed by other commuters, some of whom believed that the reporters and cameraman there were with the entity that will fix the problem.
“Only now yall come? Look is about time. Y’all always late …,” a minibus driver fumed, even as he continued rowing with the agreement of his passengers, that persons have been complaining “forever”.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson told this newspaper that while it was not his ministry that procured the services for the bridge’s construction, they are currently making plans to have the problem fixed and hopes this can be done by year end.
“My ministry is now seeking to resolve the matter, we have to review the existing designs as well as examine options to solve the issue, both of these are well advanced, then we have to seek funding – we hope to finish the works by this year end,” he said.
