Works on the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue project are still ongoing and are being executed under the precautionary protocols mandated to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) according to Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson.
“The subcontractors are still carrying out works under the COVID-19 guidelines. They are working on the drains and sidewalks from the start of Sheriff Street,” he explained.
Patterson said the sub-contractors are trying to push the volume of work done, given the reduction in traffic and good weather.
Yesterday, several workers were seen performing tasks on the portion of Sheriff Street between where it begins at Rupert Craig Highway and Drury Lane.
Workers were focussed on drain-age works while in some places, grading and compressing of construction materials in sections where the road will be expanded, was observed.
The road expansion works are being undertaken by Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation.
The project was handed over to the company early in 2018 after the contract was awarded and work commenced in the latter part of the year. The contract is pegged at US$31.03 million and is being financed by the IDB.
Head of the Public Infrastructure Ministry’s Work Services Group, Geoffrey Vaughn, had explained that the Sheriff Street to Mandela Avenue section will have an upgraded two-lane road, while Mandela Avenue, from the Cultural Centre, to the intersection with Hunter Street, and the beginning of the East Bank Highway will be upgraded to a four-lane road.
The two-year project also encompasses lane and shoulder improvements, placement of sidewalks and paved shoulders, traffic signals, streetlights, drainage upgrade works, a pedestrian overhead walkway, culverts, bridges and a roundabout. The four-lane section will also feature a dividing median along with similar components of the two-lane section.
