Supenaam stelling damage…
– HPS
HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, has said the most important intervention to address the damage to the $600M Supenaam Stelling on the Essequibo Coast is to go back to the drawing board.
“I do not believe that rushing in there with carpenters and contractors and masons, is, ideally, the first step,” he told his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, Thursday, at Office of the President (OP), Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
Luncheon explained that, having had consultants and engineers comprehensively engaged in assessments, the next step has to be planned as the final intervention.
“On this basis, we cannot rush in there to fix things. The activity has to be properly planned and a design of what should be, what should have been, has to be perfected, has to be tested, has to be adapted, so as to avoid us revisiting a scene similar to this,” he posited.
Luncheon disclosed that he has seen the report which assessed the damage and it identified a considerable amount of weaknesses in the original design and the construction phase of the project.
According to him, the work that was not done in the initial plan and execution of the project is something that will be addressed.
“Somebody has to be liable for that,” he said.
However, Luncheon said, due to the magnitude of the defects, it is unlikely that one person will be held responsible.
Last May, four days after the multi-million-dollar pier was opened to traffic, the authorities were forced to close it after the ramp buckled under the weight of motor vehicles.
The ferry operations were hurriedly shifted back to Adventure to cater for the vehicles and commuters who would have been stranded at Parika, East Bank Essequibo and on the Essequibo Coast.
The Supenaam terminal is anticipated to cut the ferry travel time by at least 90 minutes and significantly reduce fuel costs for the Transport and Harbours Department.