MINISTER of Agriculture Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has given the assurance that works on the Hope Canal are continuing at an encouraging pace, with three of the project’s four components almost complete.“If we stay on schedule, unless we have very bad weather, we are going to complete work by February 2014. The only thing left will be minor works, landscaping and such,” he said.

Ramsammy stated that the bridge and related roadway have been completed and ready for use, with minor works remaining.
The head regulator, he said, is well over 80 per cent complete.
“It is in a state of readiness. All that is left is that we need to fit the regulator with the doors, ” the minister said.
Ramsammy said work is progressing on the third component, the 10-kilometre channel from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and the conservancy head regulator – but explained that these works require the outfall sluice to be completed before they can be finished.
He said, “The canal itself has some work still to be done and the shaping of the dams is about 75 per cent complete.”
The last and major component, the Hope Canal’s outfall sluice, the eight-gate sluice at the canal’s Atlantic end, has seen much work completed in the last month.
“The expectation last year was that we would not have been able to complete the sluice in 2013,” Ramsammy said, “There is, however, some light at the end of the tunnel.”
He pointed out that the work plan agreed with the construction firm, Courtney Benn Contracting Services, is a six-tranche plan to ensure completion by February, 2014.
The construction firm is expected to be saddled with the liquidated damages penalty clause from January 1, in light of the fact that works went over the December 31 deadline.
Ramsammy maintained that despite the challenges, the Hope Canal project will be delivered within cost, using the skills of local contractors.
Construction on the project began in February 2011 with an estimated 18 months for completion, and the deadline for the project was initially set for June of this year, but was subsequently extended to the end of August, then extended again to December 31, and now to the first quarter of 2014.
Written By Vanessa Narine