Two companies have submitted proposals to build the bridge over the Corentyne River to link Guyana and Suriname, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, on Friday confirmed.
They are the Dutch engineering company, Ballast Nedam and Chinese-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).
The proposals were submitted on Thursday to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).
Following an evaluation of the submissions, a proposal will be made to Georgetown and Paramaribo and upon agreement, the selected company will be announced, this newspaper was told.
Five companies had been pre-qualified as contractors/joint ventures. They were CRBC; China Railway Construction International Ltd, China Railway Construction Caribbean Co Ltd and China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group Co Ltd; Ballast Nedam Infra Suriname B.V; China Harbour Engineering Company; and China Overseas Engineering Group Co Ltd, China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd and China Railway First Group.
With only two companies submitting bids, it is unclear the reason for the diminished interest from other three companies.
The Corentyne River Bridge will be constructed via a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement and according to the Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain model (DBFOM). This means that the successful contractor or joint venture will be responsible for its final design, construction, financing, operation, and maintenance, the Ministry of Public Works has said.
Trinidad-based consultants, WSP Caribbean, has designed and proposed a two-section bridge connected by an island in the Corentyne River to link Guyana and Suriname. The design of the bridge was unveiled in June during a high-level decision makers meeting (HLDM) when the consulting team made a detailed presentation on the feasibility and design of the new infrastructure.
Then, the Public Works Minister had hosted his ministerial counterpart Dr Riad Nurmohanmed of Suriname and a technical team from WSP Caribbean.
The HLDM, a release from the public works ministry had said, is a milestone activity of the consultancy where the key experts from WSP Caribbean will present the main findings and key considerations and field questions from the Guyana and Suriname teams. The first HLDM was held in Suriname from February 27-28.
Edghill had said that both sides were hoping to have a contract in place by October of this year. He also explained that both countries will independently evaluate the bids and then meet, discuss, and share their thoughts before selecting the most competitive bidder. Once both sides agree on the most suitable bidder, they will proceed to engage the contractor.
For his part, Suriname’s Dr Nurmohamed had stated that he was happy with the progress made, “Building the bridge is very high on the agenda for both countries… from our side, we will continue our work based on what studies have said.”
The cost of the bridge along with other reports on the traffic projections/forecasts, financial and economic evaluation, environmental assessment, legal framework, and the design of the roads, among other technical aspects, are yet to be finalised.
WSP in explaining their design said the bridge will feature two lanes and will be able to accommodate a third in cases of emergencies or controlled conditions. The bridge superstructure will have a total deck width of 12.4 metres including lanes and shoulders with the carriageway measuring 10.05 metres. It will also have utilities inside the box girder with an internal inspection path width, an on-top inspection path; wearing surface: extra concrete thickness, milled after closure. The bridge will feature steel railing along with solar-powered luminaires at the deck slab edge, next to the deck inspection path, the WSP Caribbean representative stated.
From Guyana’s end, the bridge will be 1,100 metres with 22 spans, each measuring 50 metres in length while at Suriname’s end it will feature an elevated section.
That section of the bridge will comprise two zones. Zone ‘A’ East it was explained, will consist of 20 spans at 1,000 metres and Zone ‘A’ West with 19 spans at 950 metres. The WSP representative indicated that Zone ‘B’ which is referred to as the Main Bridge, will consist of 80 to 130-metre spans. Further, all the main bridge’s piers will be protected against ship impact and piers, and the access bridges will be protected by guiding monopile dolphins connected through tethered floating fenders.
