The Supenaam fallout…
A FORMAL review of the new Good Hope/Supenaam Ferry Stelling to include recommendations of remedial modifications so as to have the facility put into regular operation at the earliest opportunity, is to be undertaken by Prime Minister Sam Hinds.
The request by President Bharrat Jagdeo seeks to bring about a desirable end to the ongoing dispute concerning the facility, and according to a statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister, two engineers are to be retained to lend assistance to Mr. Hinds.
Yesterday, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Mr. Robeson Benn, at a press conference hosted at his Wight’s Lane Office to address issues in relation to media reports on the new wharf facility, which, according to him “has taken on a grossly erroneous characterization in our national media.”
He was accompanied by Mr.  Balraj Balram, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, and Mr. Khevin Trim, Acting General Manager of the Transport & Harbours Department (T&HD) and Mr. Rawlston Adams, General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC), both highly trained and experienced engineers.
Reiterating, as earlier reported elsewhere in the media, that the T&HD took over a facility “which was inadequate to handle the typical flotation as well as the arrangement to get on to the vessel’s for the heavy truck traffic from the Essequibo,” Mr. Benn said his Ministry would be conducting “a complete engineering back analysis” of the facility to determine “for itself” what the T&HD has taken over as a complete structure.
The mandate from the President to the Prime Minister and Minister Benn’s remarks have their genesis in a recent structural failure of the facility at Good Hope, which resulted in the management of T&HD, which had moved operations there, having to relocate to the old and dilapidated Adventure Stelling further up the Coast.
That location, which can no longer adequately cater for the magnitude of operations on the Coast, entails an additional 90 minutes of sailing by the T&HD ferry vessels to get there.
Construction of the facility, according to the contract, should have taken from March 14, 2006 to September 2007, by the contracting firm, B.K. International  headed by Mr. Brian Tiwarie, with the Canada-based SNC Lavin responsible for the preliminary designs, and the Trinidad-based Vikab Engineering for the supervisory aspect of the project.
But according to Minister Benn, the facility was only handed over to T&HD this year, after an overrun of some 439 days.
Tiwarie, whose company was issued with a `Certificate of Completion’, has, since the structural failure came to light, distanced his company from any wrong-doing, laying the blame instead on the modification works that were done to the facility since it was handed over to the T&HD.
But when asked why T&HD took over the project knowing that it was defective, the Minister said it was as a result of “pressure” to have the facility operational after an inordinately long wait to have the identified defects corrected.
He, however, hastened to explain that the project was under the aegis of the Ministry of Local Government; that it was the Public Execution Unit of the Ministry that had issued the ‘Certificate of Completion’; and re-emphasised that the Ministry of Works, T&HD included, only came into the picture after it was handed over to them.
Trim said the modification works included the installation of a 1.7-ton steel drawbridge (and not five-tonne as has been reported in other sections of the media) to guarantee the safe offloading and reloading of vehicles, in particular trucks, given the excessive distance between the vessel and the ramp.
He noted that given the excessive distance between ramp and vessel, the traditional use of timber planks as obtains at other T&HD wharfing facilities would have been inadequate.  These planks permit the safe traversing of trucks with the maximum weight of 22 tons, while it was observed during operations at the facility that the maximum weight that traversed was 23 tons gross.
The T&HD top official further said that “prior to the commencement of the operations, the measured distance between the pier and the ramp ranged from six inches  during the high tide, to nine inches during low tide,” and that to date, these distances  have not changed.
With reference to the inadequate permissible weighting, Trim pointed out that during preliminary visits to the facility, a member of the consulting body had said that “the facility was designed to accept 30 tons, and the pontoon designed to submerge under weight.”
He said an objection was raised by T&HD officials when that statement was weighed against the fact that the maximum weight of the truck being 23 tons,  and the tonnage of the drawbridge was 1.7 tons, thereby bring the total weight to 24.7 tons.
Although the modifications were effects, when the structure was put into use, serious structural failure occurred on the “as-built” design, and according the Ministry of  Public Works, it is their view that “this failure would have occurred in spite of whether the drawbridge came from the ferry or from the ramp.”
It is, however, the contention of BK International that the drawbridge should have been installed on the ferry instead.
Benn said that the Ministry, even though it had taken over the facility, “was prepared to work with and rectify any reasonable failures that may have shown up with respect to the facility,” and that they had accepted that two issues yet had to be addressed, and these were   the flotation and the drawbridge.
He said a deflection in the cords on the drawbridge were highlighted by Mr. Walter Willis, who is also an official at the Ministry of Works.
Benn has taken serious issue with press statements attributed to Tiwarie, in particular where it was said that the structural integrity was compromised and that the structure was deliberately damaged.
Remarking that he is also unhappy with the characterization of officials, including engineers of the Ministry who had become involved with the project, without giving the Ministry an opportunity to respond, the Minister rated such utterances by Tiwarie as “highly preposterous,”  “irresponsible,”  “presumptuous” and an eye-pass.
He said he will be seeking legal advice on the issue, both at the private level and with the  Chambers of  the Attorney General.
“I am angry that any person would suggest that I as the Minister  would deliberately and perhaps maliciously attempt to create a situation which would compromise and lead to a situation where people would be killed, he said, adding:
“The Ministry holds regarding the safety of constructions as a high priority and the safety of the workers, the engineers and the public who use those facilities in extremely high priority and I am extremely angry at that particular assertion.
“We want a facility that we could run and serve the public . . . these ridiculous claims which are being bandied about and thrown around, I have a fear that the contractor making these ridiculous assertions, which were ascribed to him in the press as oligarchic aspirations with respect to his relationship with the ministry. He wants maybe to control the ministry; to control how the ministry responds with respect to its responsibility in respect to ensure that it has proper contracts delivered.”