Dear Editor,
With reference to an article in SN dated January 6, 2024, captioned `US$35m contract sealed for MacKenzie-Wismar bridge’, the Minister of Public Works is reported in the article as saying the former APNU+AFC Government proposed to build a new two-lane bridge across the Demerara River to the tune of US$30 million. He stated incorrectly, that comparatively, Lindeners will be getting a four-lane bridge at the cost of US$35 million. The Minister of Public Works has been publicly caught out for his practice of using imaginary numbers to justify his government’s incompetence.
The background to this project is the APNU+AFC policy of linking the hinterland to the coast. This project design was commissioned for the Linden-Mabura highway (currently under construction), a fixed bridge crossing at Kurupukari on the Essequibo River and a fixed bridge at MacKenzie– Wismar. By 2019 all designs inclusive of geotechnical studies, environmental and social impact analyses were completed.
The construction cost for the two-lane version of the Wismar bridge was US$23.6M (inclusive of 10% contingency), while the four-lane version was pegged at US$29.2M (inclusive of contingency). For the Minister to now be boasting that the PPP version, which is twenty percent higher, for the exact same design bridge is quite laughable, but understandable for a government that moved the Gas to Shore project from US$580M to US$2.8B – highlighting that the concept of cost-effective projects is alien to the PPP.
What both the President and the Minister failed to remind the Lindeners, is that if the PPP had their way, none of these projects would have seen the light of day. In 2019, while in opposition, the PPP informed the British funding agency (DFID), that if they were successful at the upcoming 2020 elections, they would scrap the Linden – Mabura highway. It was only after DFID informed the PPP that if they were so shortsighted, then the DFID would withdraw the US$75M grant which was earmarked for the project that they relented. Therefore, not being able to kill this project, the PPP reluctantly agreed to proceed.
The MacKenzie–Wismar bridge was the brainchild of the APNU+AFC administration, a project that the PPP attempted to kill. No inclusions were made in the 2020 and 2021 budgets for this project – it was only after the public outcry by the Lindeners that it was reluctantly reintroduced – so much for caring for the people of Region #10.
The third project, the fixed bridge at Kurupukari has been dropped completely, thus condemning the citizens of Region #9, to a pontoon crossing which is only available for 12 hours daily – so much for visionary leadership.
The road and bridges mentioned above were just part of the infrastructural development plan that the previous administration developed for the citizens of Region 10. Additionally, studies were completed for a fixed bridge over the Berbice River to Kwakwani, contracts were awarded and works already started on a road linking Orealla/Siparuta in Region #6 to Kwakwani, funding was secured for a new highway, linking Kwakwani and Ituni to the new Linden–Lethem highway as well as for the construction of an international standard transport hub in Linden, which would have catered for the anticipated increased traffic from Brazil on the completion of the Linden– Lethem road. All of these projects have been abandoned by the PPP and replaced with small drain cleaning contracts to a few of their selected supporters – that is the progress the government has condemned the region to.
Yours faithfully,
David Patterson
