Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill has announced plans for 24 connectors along the East Coast highway after government secured approval from China to use the sums saved on the road widening and improvement contract to execute additional roadworks around the project.
“We are going to be doing 24 connector roads. The connector road is the road that is going to be coming north or south to the main access road,” Edghill was quoted as saying in a Department of Public Information (DPI) report on Friday.
It noted that approximately $1 billion has been allocated for the programme in the 2021 national budget and that from that sum the government has invested nearly $440 million, with about $560 million saved from the project.
China Railway First Group Company Limited is the contractor for the project, for which works are expected to be completed by year end.
The DPI report noted that Edghill had criticised the former coalition government’s handling of the project, which saw a rushed commissioning in the lead-up to the 2020 elections while there were critical outstanding components.
It added that many of those issues, including the installation of street lights and traffic signs, were later rectified.
The report further said that the connector roads tie into the government’s infrastructural development agenda and will provide easier access and reduce traffic congestion when the Ogle-Eccles highway, connecting the East Coast and East Bank Demerara corridors, comes on stream.
Meanwhile, Edghill was reported as saying that there are plans to extend the road further to Diamond, then Timehri. He said the intended outcome is to have a thoroughfare connecting the country’s two main international airports, located at Ogle and Timehri.
India has already prequalified contractors for the $10.4 billion Ogle-Eccles road. A contract award is expected by the last quarter of 2021.
