Superior Concrete Inc, which clashed earlier this year with regulators and defied orders to shut an illicit operation, says that it intends to establish a state-of-the art concrete batching plant.
The company also informed that it has terminated the services of one of its executives who verbally abused Ministry of Housing officials.
“Not only is Superior Concrete here to serve the budding oil and gas industry, but it will also aid in the country’s ongoing infrastructural development,” the company said in a statement on October 8, following a report by Stabroek News that it was setting up a plant at McDoom on the East Bank of Demerara and had been told that no impact survey for the project was needed.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that the establishment of the concrete plant at McDoom by Superior Concrete does not warrant an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
In its proposal to the EPA, Superior Concrete says that it plans to install and operate a concrete batching plant on one acre of land at the GYSBI Annexe; an existing industrial area located at McDoom. “The perimeter shall be fenced with a chain link fence and gate at the NE corner of the compound, for entry and exit,” the proposal states.
“The batching plant will have a mixer unit, two sealed vertical cement silos and an aggregate hopper/ weighing unit. Sand and coarse aggregate [crushed stone] will be stored in heaped piles on site. There will also be a containerised office, water tank, storage container and toilet. The concrete batching process involves the cement, sand, aggregate, and water delivered by conveyor to the mixer unit and combined to produce a batch of the designed mix of concrete. The batch of concrete is delivered to the concrete mixer truck for delivery to a construction site outside of the compound,” the project summary notes.
Cement, of the Rock Hard brand, will be delivered in bulk via sealed tanker truck and vacuumed into the cement silos.
“The cement is delivered from the silo to the mixer unit by a closed pipe. Once the cement is mixed with the aggregates and water in the mixer unit, it is no longer a dust hazard. The concrete batching area is contained by a sand berm to collect and prevent any potential cement water running off of the surface into the drainage system. A washout bund will be installed on site, for waste concrete products to be stored in. The water will evaporate or be pumped out of the bund and recycled. The dried concrete waste will be crushed and recycled,” the proposal explained.
Superior Concrete’s Managing Director, Max-well Snow is quoted in the release as saying that the company wanted to be a part of Guyana’s “tremendous potential for change”.
Logistics GY Express
Superior Concrete said it is also focused on local capacity building. “The company has partnered with Logistics GY Express, a 100 percent owned Guyanese company, to be their local partner. Logistics GY Express’ Managing Director, Randy Wade, is a remigrant from Canada. Superior Concrete has also started building local capacity through their apprenticeship programme for batch plant operators – a profession uncommon in Guyana. Furthermore, the company has partnered with other local suppliers to provide trucks for their operations,” the statement said.
Last week, Stabroek News reported that the concrete batching company that had established illicit operations near to South Ruimveldt Gardens, was now setting up a plant at McDoom.
The application was lodged for Superior Concrete by Ian Jones who had been expelled from the country after infractions of his work permit and regulatory orders. He had also verbally abused Minister of Housing, Collin Croal and members of a Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) team.
The company had been served three notices of contravention by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) and the Ministry of Housing and Water and was asked to cease works after it was not granted permission for any works for the construction of a concrete manufacturing facility adjacent to South Ruimveldt Gardens.
Austin Shamlin and Jones were both given seven days to leave the country after the verbal attack on Croal, CH&PA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sherwyn Greaves, and others, who had made an impromptu visit to observe what was happening on the site on May 11.
Snow was served with the third contravention notice from staff of the Enforcement Department of the Ministry of Housing and Water.
Croal had said that he was baffled by the reaction from the directors of the company and that the attack was uncalled for. He noted that his visit there had been merely to ensure that the developers were compliant with the cease order and to remind them of the importance of following procedure.
The Government had said that Jones would not be welcomed back given his past behaviour but that the company would be allowed to operate here.
While no mention was made of Jones, the October 8 statement from Superior Concrete said that the company had removed one of its directors, Austin Shamlin.
“Under its new leadership, Superior Concrete has been working with the appropriate agencies to achieve compliance. As it stands, the company has obtained permits issued by NIS and GRA, and have had their EPA notice published. The company will commence operations once they receive final approval from Central Housing and Planning Committee through the Mayor and City Council. This comes after the company received confirmation that their application for outline planning permission to establish their Concrete Batching Plant at a plot of land at the South-Eastern portion of Plate Area GIL2, Plantation Rome, Greater Georgetown, was deemed suitable for the proposed development by the CH&PA Planning Authority on the 23 September 2021,” the statement said.
The company, Superior Concrete Inc., was registered in Guyana on 16 February, 2021. “Superior Concrete is the premier provider of high quality, full specification concrete in Guyana. With a new, state of the art concrete batching plant operated by expert batchers and an initial fleet of three US standard reconditioned mixer trucks, Superior Concrete Inc. will deliver solid, consistent results with every batch of concrete,” its profile states.
Its position was repeated in the statement as the company said that it brings state-of-the-art technology here, in compliance with environmental standards.
“The company’s plant is a fully enclosed design utilizing advanced lasering technology, which monitors the quality of the air in order to ensure air pollutants, primarily cement dust, are captured within the ‘silo’ filter system,” the statement said.
“Superior Concrete in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standards, will put Guyana on the map as having the most state-of-the-art concrete batching plant in the Caribbean. Beyond mitigating the hazards posed by cement dust, Superior Concrete, Inc. will also utilise a recycling system for excess concrete and wastewater, which will be repurposed and reused,” it added.
