The Ministry of Public Infrastructure has invited bids for the upgrade of the Good Success/New Hope river defences.
A ministry advertisement said that the government has applied for financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in the amount of US$25 million, which will be used for the ministry’s Sea and River Defence Resilience Project. A portion of the money will be used towards the financing of the project to reconstruct and upgrade the Good Success/New Hope, East Bank Demerara river defences, which were last worked on five years ago.
The project will encompass the realignment of the river defences, excavation and earth work moving for the revetment in tidal zone, installation of steel sheet and screw piles, concrete works in marine environment and the construction of scour protection consisting of sand, geotextile filter fabric, underlayer rock and armour rock.
Bids are expected to be submitted before October 31 at either the Ministry of Public Infrastructure or the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board at the Ministry of Finance.
In 2012, revetment works along the New Hope Public Road were completed after the Demerara River had been eroding the public road in the community for some time. The works started in November, 2011, with two construction companies undertaking them at a cost of some $300 million.
Stabroek News visited the area and residents questioned why there was a need for an upgrade when works were carried out only five years ago. “It brings up the question [as to] whether the work they do before was bad work or it wasn’t enough or something. I living here long and I remember how it was before the works five years ago and the drastic changes but I don’t see what else needs to be done right now,” Henry Rajpaul told Stabroek News on Monday.
