DEFECTS in the 12 km stretch of the East Bank Berbice road (EBD) will be corrected by the contractor, H. Nauth and Sons, before the official handing over of the project to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. The contracting company was hired to resurface 12 km of the road, between Everton and Mara, and work commenced in November 2014 and was completed in June 2015. The road project cost $393.9M.
At a review meeting held at the ministry on Wednesday, Mr Jerry Loochan, General Manager of H. Nauth and Sons informed Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson and the technical staff of the Works Services Group, that remedial works will commence on September 9, 2015.

The ministry revealed that during an inspection done on August 26, the ministry’s internal auditors found that sections of the road where surfacing was completed “did not meet the specifications, debris were very visible in wearing course, which resulted in holes emerging on the road surface.”
The team also highlighted that also noticeable was vegetation growing through the road and hairline cracks which clearly indicated that the base material still has vegetable soil.
The compaction test of the thoroughfare will be re-evaluated by the ministry’s laboratory, the ministry assured. The contracting company will be executing some independent density tests as well.
A technical team from the ministry will accompany the contractor to inspect all defects with the aim of conducting a detailed assessment of the corrective works needed to bring the project within the specifications and standard as per contract. (Rebecca Ganesh)