As the construction of the new Demerara Harbour Bridge proceeds apace, government has advertised for contractors to build the four-lane approach road on the East Bank of Demerara to the bridge.
With the procuring entity being the Ministry of Housing and Water, Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), government issued the call for bidders, informing them that they will need bid security which will be 1.5 per cent of the bid price if they bid between $500 million and $999 million. If the bid is $1 billion and above, the bid security will be one per cent of the bid price.
Divided into six lots, the ministry said that interested bidders may obtain further information from CH&PA and inspect the bidding documents between the hours of 9am and 3:30pm on work days.
There are two pre-bid meetings which will be held on Thursday, July 25, and Friday, July 26, between the hours of 10 am and 12 noon. The first will take place in the CH&PA Boardroom, with a PowerPoint presentation on evaluation criteria, environmental and social management requirements and all other pertinent information related to filling out the bid.
The meeting on July 26 will be a site visit to determine access, logistics, and traffic management among other areas of interest, and this will be at the intersection of Massy Road and Heroes Highway, Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Tenders must be delivered to the Chairman National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, Ministry of Finance, on or before Thursday August 8. Tenders will be opened at 9:30am on the same day.
“Contracts will be awarded to the lowest evaluated qualified bidder and only one lot will be awarded to any bidder in a project area. However, a bidder may be considered for award for more than one lot, provided that the bidder has shown sufficient equipment capacity, financial capacity, human resources capacity to execute more than one lot simultaneously and to service their existing contracts whereby all existing contracts MUST BE listed in the ‘Statement of On-Going Project Forms’,” the ministry said.
It added, “Furthermore, in the event that one bidder is adjudged the lowest qualified bidder for more than one lot, then the Evaluation Committee will recommend to the benefit of the Client, which Lot the bidder is recommend for,”
The delivery or construction period has been set to seven months for each lot and contractors can bid for one or all six of the lots.
The seven-month period would coincide with government’s completion date for the bridge.
In May of this year, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill told Stabroek News that the bridge completion is now projected to be at the end of the first quarter of next year instead of December this year. Edghill had said that it was not the fault of the contractor.
At the time, works on the bridge were at around 45% with consultants, Italian company, Polytechnica, reporting that as at April 28, the figure was 43.7%.
The 2.6-kilometre crossing, being built by China Railway Construction Corporation (International) Ltd in a joint venture with China Railway Construction (Caribbean) Company Ltd, and China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group Company Ltd, will link Nandy Park on the east bank of the Demerara River with La Grange on the west bank. It will have four lanes, with a total width of 23.6 metres including the median and the shoulders, providing sufficient room for safe and effective traffic flow.
Edghill had said that work is ongoing simultaneously on the east and west sides with foundation works for the beams in progress.
The temporary structure was completed since early this year. He had told reporters on January 5, “Based on my inspection and the reports I have received today from the contractor, 100% of the temporary structure is completed, which I am happy for. And they are now putting in the platforms, which are required…”
