THE Ministry of Public Works Wednesday formally started the process to execute six recently signed contracts for sea and river defence works across the coast as part of the ongoing efforts to protect the coast and its attendant interests from the impact of a rising sea. Speaking at the press conference at his office, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn said that under nationally funded and foreign funded projects, “we have an amount of $2.76B as capital works and for current works we have a sum of $189M, a total of $2.95B, which is being expended for sea defence works for capital and current under our budget.”
The contracts are for the construction of river defences at New Hope, East Bank Demerara, in the amount of $310.9M awarded to Samaroo’s Investment; construction of 350 metres of riprap sea defences at Abary to Profit on the West Coast of Berbice, at a cost of $152M and the construction of 120 metres of riprap sea defence at Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo at a cost of $63.2M awarded to M & B Construction; three contracts awarded to BK International at Amersfort, Wakenaam; Maria’s Lodge to Belfield, Essequibo Coast; and Orangestein, Essequibo Coast, in the amount of $132.2M, $129M and $136.2M respectively.
The minister noted that for this year, the Ministry of Works received the largest budgetary allocation for its works programme in a number of areas.
According to the minister, the completion time for the projects is six months with a defects liability period of 12 months.
He said the ministry and its agencies are working to reduce the cost per linear metre of sea defence construction. He spoke about the planting of mangroves and restoring groynes with a view to bringing the cost of sea defence down. He noted that the cost per linear metre of sea defence ranges from US$2,500 to US$3,500.
“This is an enormous sum. There is a lot of sea defence work that has to be done all over the country and we want to do much more of these works,” he said.
Benn encouraged the contractors to pay attention to the issues of safety and efficient construction time and to deliver on the contracts within the established timeframes. “There is a lot to do and we have to be able to move on to other contracts. We do not want a situation where there are time overruns,” he stressed, adding that there must be delivery to specifications.
The minister said in the case of the river defences at New Hope on the East Bank of Demerara, this is a project that is tied to issues with the road there. “We have had failure of revetment works and a threat to the public road there over the years. The road alignment is going to be slightly changed eastwards and a new addition to the road on the eastern side is going to be built and the revetment works restored on the river banks so that we maintain structural integrity on the East Bank,” the Minister said.
He said that the continuing challenge of squatting on the riverbanks remains, and this undermines the integrity of the banks.
“This is an ongoing issue and we have been talking with the Ministry of Housing and the local authorities on this matter. Some months ago we had a bit of a high tide and the areas of overtopping were related to areas where there was squatting on the river embankment, particularly on the East Bank,” he said.