Following the evaluation of tenders for the construction of the New Demerara Harbour Bridge, China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has submitted the lowest responsive bid and pending successful negotiations with government, will be building the anticipated structure.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday announced that Cabinet had received and noted the recommendation of the company from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board. However in a subsequent press release, the Ministry of Finance announced that Cabinet has granted its no-objection to the Ministry of Public Works to engage CSCEC to build the New Harbour Bridge.
Sources told this newspaper that the company still has to first accept the award and complete negotiations with government on design type and model for the project to go ahead.
Those negotiations will commence when President Irfaan Ali returns from Glasgow, Scotland, where he is attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP 26.
Stabroek News understands that during the evaluation of bids for the project, CSCEC scored highest for its submission of a bridge that it will design, finance, and build. Guyana, it was explained by a source, would have to operate the crossing.
When the bids were opened two weeks ago, it was revealed that five companies, including four from China, submitted financial proposals. A local company, Boskalis Guyana Inc, an affiliate of the Dutch offshore contractor and maritime services provider, did not present a bid in favour of the project.
Jagdeo yesterday explained that the company did not withdraw from the bidding process but “submitted a bid for a tunnel instead of a bridge. So that was the issue.”
CSCEC, in its tender document, pegged the cost for the construction of the bridge at US$256,638,289.
There has been a major controversy over the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency not to require an Environmental Impact Assessment for the project. This decision has been appealed and the Environmental Assessment Board has to give a date on when it will come up for hearing.
After the signing of the contract this year, the selected contractor will design and build the bridge, which has a two-year “non-negotiable” completion deadline.
The bidding document had specified the criteria for making a bid on the project. It stipulated that bidders present proposals for a Design, Build and Finance (DBF) option, or alternatively, Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Maintain (DBFOM).
The Scope of Works in the design/build contract included the complete design and construction of a two-lane dual (four-lane) carriageway, hybrid cable-stayed centre-span bridge with concrete box/T-beam girder approach bridge structures, and must include bridge collision protection, a navigation span to accommodate Handymax vessel navigation aids, lighting, signage, and all other ancillary works, an access road with a minimum of 50 meters up to abutments, toll-collection buildings and ancillary buildings on the West Bank of the Demerara River.
When completed, government wants a new four-lane, high-span fixed bridge in the vicinity of the current location and which terminates at Nandy Park on the East Bank of Demerara. “The new design of the Demerara Harbour Bridge will not require opening or retraction to allow for maritime traffic and will be built with a life span of at least 50 years,” the bidding document states.
Government has said that it may have to acquire those lands which fall into the path of the new location which terminates at Nandy Park on the east bank and La Grange on the west bank, but a decision on that matter has not yet been made.
Ali had said that the new bridge would be a very high one, standing at a minimum of 50 metres or as high as or higher than the Marriott Hotel, to facilitate the clearance for vessels.
