Minister within the Minis-try of Public Works Deodat Indar on Wednesday rejected a request by China Harbour Engineering Company’s (CHEC) for an extension of its deadline to complete additional works at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), the Department of Public Information (DPI) has reported.
The project has been riddled by delays, setbacks and feuding between the contractor and government officials over what exactly was entailed in the US$150 million contract.
The project began under the Donald Ramotarled PPP/C administration, ran for all of the David Granger government and is now into the second year of the Irfaan Ali term.
DPI said that CHEC of China had requested a deadline extension to April 2022, but Indar insisted that the work must be completed this year.
“We’re not discussing any extension. On the 15th of November, of this year, the engineers will go back and they will do a certificate of completion, which is to determine progress works. At that point, we will know exactly what [is the] percentage completion, what are the issues, and then we will have that discussion. But not now.
“I want to make sure that just cause is shown, and try your best as a company – you have 120 workers here – to ensure that you push the work”, the minister was quoted as saying at the Timehri project site.
DPI said that the minister had visited the project site for an update on the progress of works after receiving complaints about it and other related developments.
It noted that the works being done by the contractor include an extension for two new air bridges and addressing over 1,500 defects, which resulted from poor quality of work by the contractor. DPI said that the Minister was informed that 88 per cent of the defects had been resolved.
Speaking about the extension request, the project manager, Carissa Goodings said, “They have requested for an extension in time due to delays in terms of freight. They would have also included for buried utilities, underground utilities that we have encountered when we would have been doing our excavations. So, those are the two major causes for delays.”
DPI said that Indar expressed particular concern about the pace of the project, given multiple timeline breaches. He said that a lot of work went into negotiating solutions with the contractor.
Asked if he is confident of the company’s ability to sufficiently bring the project to a close, the minister told DPI that the government had a lot of reservations when it first assumed office.
Last December, the PPP/C government and CHEC announced that they had reached an agreement on the project for additional works estimated to cost US$9 million. The agreement stated that CHEC will stand the cost of the additional works. The deal appeared to be a significant win for the government, which had warned of legal action against CHEC if the defects highlighted were not remedied.
Recently, the airport and CHEC and Total Solutions Inc, a local company signed a $400 million contract for the supply delivery and installation for two air bridges.
On September 12 this year, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill had said that with challenges in the shipping industry due to the global pandemic, the project would likely not meet its yearend deadline.
After the commissioning of the extended runway and the airport’s new Instrument Landing System, Edghill said that while there is a December 31, 2021 deadline, it is highly likely that the government will have to grant CHEC an extension given the difficulties in the transportation of materials here.
“We may not get everything in place by December 31, 2021. And that’s largely due to shipping. And the challenges of shipping as it relates to COVID. And this is not just the airport but several projects. Even now if you get containers, getting the booking time and ships have become problematic. You’re waiting between 90 to 160 days after booking to get a container on a ship,” Edghill said on Sunday night before stressing that this is the reality and he was not making an excuse for company.
Next Easter was mentioned then as the likely timeframe for completion of the project.
