…to commence operations soon

A PRIVATE company, over the past few days, has established a bitumen plant in Linden, which is expected to commence operations earliest.

This establishment of the plant comes at a time when residents have been complaining about lack of repairs to the many deplorable roads in the community. The plant which is located on the Wismar shore is one of the two portable plants that were expected in the region for 2017. The operations of the plant is expected to see more roads being repaired and constructed for 2017 at a cheaper cost and also will create employment in the region.

Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, told the Guyana Chronicle that the establishment of the plant is one that will bring many benefits to Region 10, especially with the commencement of the first leg of the Linden to Lethem road. “Bitumen will be more readily available and by all indications will be cheaper than getting bitumen from Georgetown, this means that it should give us a boost in terms of employment and a boost in terms of cheaper bitumen [and] that means more roads for Region 10, the RC posited.

With the availability of the plant, production of bitumen will be easy as the aggregates; laterite, stone and sand are available right in Linden.

The Regional Democratic Council recently awarded contracts for the construction of nine roads in 2017 and while this was received well by residents, many had expressed their disappointment that some of the deplorable roads in their communities will not be done for 2017. With the operation of the plant, more roads are expected to be completed since the production cost will be lower.

In 2015, a portable bitumen plant was in Linden for a short while and eight roads were repaired during that time. In 1960’s a bitumen plant, which was also located in Linden, aided significantly in the construction of the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, which is a national edifice that stands 50 years after. With the expectation that the plant will hold permanent operations in Linden, infrastructural development is expected to sky rocket in 2017 by not only quantity but quality since the administration is looking towards constructing bituminous surfaced roads instead on chipsy.

Roads to be constructed in 2017
The roads that will be constructed in 2017 include Wallaba Road at Christianburg; Boulavard Aveneue at Amelia’s Ward; 2nd Cross Street, Amelia’s Ward; Farm to Market road at West Watooka; Daggarad Avenue and upper Green Heart Street.

The RDC has allocated $368.272M from the $3.1 B 2017 budget for Public Infrastructure, while $55M have been allocated for repairs to be done to current roads. Several roads that are not on the list, but are in dire need of repairs include: Main Street, Amelia’s Ward; Teacher’s Hostel Street and several roads in Lovers Lane.

“I am happy that the bitumen plant is here because when this government came in, one thing Linden people thought they would have gotten relief from is the deplorable roads and for many people that was moving slow, so now things looking up because we are expected to see many more roads done because we have everything here to make bitumen, one resident of Amelia’s Ward, Sharon King said. Another resident of Wisroc, in an invited comment said, “Linden should not get bad roads, because we have everything right here but roads are one of our major problems and I am optimistic that things will change now with the bitumen plant; I hope it is not like the last one that came two morning and pack up and leave but will stay so that Linden people can really benefit from this thing,” Sherwin Belle said.