Work has started on the upgrade of the Barrack Retreat Road in the Lethem as part of the planned rehabilitation of the Region Nine township’s road network, which will boast first local underground drainage system.
The Department of Public Information (DPI) yesterday reported Hinterland Engineer Jeffrey Walcott as saying that the roadway will encompass an asphaltic concrete surface for two northbound and two southbound lanes of 3.5m width each.
The DPI report said the roadway will also be equipped with sidewalks, concrete guttering, curbs and, for the first time in Guyana, underground concrete drainage tubes and manholes.
“The proposed roadway will have an impressive underground drainage system that is being used in developed countries. The drainage network utilises a system of interconnecting concrete tubes varying in diameters from 400mm to 1000mm. Manholes will be constructed at intervals to collect water and for inspection purposes,” Walcott was quoted as saying.
The reported noted that the new underground drainage system will utilise concrete tubes, of varying sizes, which are being used as splines across the road.
Walcott told DPI that these drains, running under the sidewalk, will take the water off the carriageway. The run-off will flow into collector boxes, which will then move along the concrete tubes to the Tabatinga Creek or into the Takutu River.
To date, the underground drainage system is about 85 percent complete, the report said. The paving and construction of the carriageway is expected to begin in October, once the weather is favourable.
The first phase will see two lanes being paved from the base to the asphalt, with a median, and a sidewalk and the underground drainage. It is expected to be completed by the end of September, 2018.
Phase one of the work is being done by JR Ranch Incorporated while, phase two will be done by H. Nauth & Sons Civil Engineering Contractors at a cost of $187.8 million and $76.6 million, respectively.
