Fully-automated concrete batching facility
COGNIZANT of the need to maintain efficiency and reliability in the execution of  its donor-funded projects where concrete of the finest quality is required, B.K. International on Wednesday converted  a previously-installed, manually-operated  concrete production plant into a fully automated facility.

The facility was inspected and certified for operations by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards.

Managing Director Mr. Brian Tiwarie, in an invited comment, told the Guyana Chronicle that with the full automation of the US$350,000 Vince Hagan, environmentally-friendly plant sited at the company’s Kingston Stone Depot, the company is now better able to fast-track its new NBS headquarters, the Haag Bosh landfill and 9th EDF-funded sea defence projects.

He vented his frustration in not yet being able to clear the silos, a critical component to complement the concrete plant  as well as some steel to be used on the sea  defence projects  and which has been lying at a city wharf for three and one month respectively due to ‘some duty-free hiccups’.

Tiwarie, however, remains optimistic that the issue will be resolved soonest  in order that the projects can move  “at full blast”.
B.K. International already has its own quarry and sand pits and with the now full automated plant, Tiwarie said the company has already secured orders to supply concrete blocks in neighbouring Suriname.

Media operatives on a conducted tour Wednesday of the facility complete with a dust collector, saw first-hand  concrete blocks being made in batches by the plant.

On hand to brief  and answer questions  on the operations were Dr Clifton Inniss, Project Manager; Mr Talish Narine, Quality Control Technician and Mr Jamie Hutson a representative of the UK-based firm, Command Alkon, and who was tasked with calibrating the equipment, as well as training the company’s personnel.

A concrete production plant allows for concrete of a high quality to be mixed and produced using sand, gravel known as aggregates, cement and water. The one which B.K. International has set up and which has now been automated has the maximum capacity of producing 170 cubic yards of ready-mix concrete per hour.
With a batch-making plant, proportions of aggregates, cement and water are mixed to produce batches of concrete blocks. The plant, under this process, has the capacity to produce 1,300 blocks per hour.
It was noted that while the advance process guarantees a much higher production rate as against a manual process, a greater advantage lies in having the highest possible quality material; for example, the blocks when produced are more compressed and has less water content.
Hutson had explained that the computerized system through programming allows for accurate input of proportions of raw material before mixing commences.

Meanwhile, rehabilitation works on sea defences at various locations in the country, being undertaken by B.K. International with funding provided by the European Union (EU), continues.

The works is one of three components of the 9thth EDF project, and being carried out at 33 sites earmarked as Lots 1 (two sites) and Lot 2 having 31 sites.

Lot 1 consists of  the reconstruction of 80 metres of sea defence using the rip-rap design at Number 77 and Number 78 Villages, Springlands, Corentyne, and  the sea defence at Clonbrook, East Coast Demerara.

Chief Sea and River Defence Officer, in the Works Ministry,  Mr Jeffrey Vaughn, when contacted for an update on the project works, said the contractor has already completed works at Springlands and is about 65 per cent completed at the latter site.
Also completed is work on the sea defence at Wakenaam, which along with rehabilitation works  in  Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam); Wakenaam in the Essequibo Islands; the West Coast of Demerara; Good Hope on the  East Coast of Demerara, and the Kitty Sea Wall,  comprise Lot 2 of the project.
A  requirement of the project is for the contractor to have in place a fully-automated concrete plant and it is expected  that the workpace on the remaining projects would now be accelerated, so as to  meet the required deadlines.
Vaughn acknowledged that some of the projects works are behind schedule, but reasoned that with the cement plant being calibrated and in operation, there is the possibly that the contractor can implement  mechanisms to have the project back on track.

He noted that unpredictable and unfavourably weather conditions which have been experienced countrywide recently and in some Caribbean States, served as one of the setbacks in the progress  at some sites, especially where the ingress and egress is by way of a mud track.
The other components of the 9th EFD project are for Technical Assistance inclusive of institutional strengthening which is being provided by MWH Company based in the UK, and for Supply.
The supporting document for the latter has already been completed, along with tendering  and what is awaited now is for the contract to be awarded, he added.