Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill has assured that the Sherriff Street/Mandela Avenue road expansion project should be almost completed by the end of the year
He gave the assurance to the Commit-tee of Supply during the consideration of the 2020 budget estimates last Wednesday. The question about the expansion project was posed by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, who observed that $2.7 billion was already spent on the road that is nowhere near completion. She asked if the $553 million allocation for the project will ensure its completion.
Edghill told the house that the road expansion project was one that was left over from the previous PPP/C government and was a US$60 million loan which was funded by the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) and should have been completed already. He noted that when he entered office as the minister, it was discovered that works were not being done to the road not only because of the virus but for another reason. “The other reason was because of non-compliance with the environmental standards, the IDB had to shut the disbursements down on this project… it was badly mismanaged” he said.