–most aspects to be finished by mid-2018

DESPITE several setbacks, management of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) has announced that the airport expansion project will be completed by December 2018.
The expansion was initially scheduled to be done by December 2017, but due to a number of factors, they couldn’t make the deadline, said Chief Executive Officer of CJIA, Ramesh Geer during his presentation at the year-end press conference of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure at the Transport Sports Club on Thursday.
One of the major setbacks to which he referred was a slippage on the south-western side of the expanded sand-filled area.

According to Geer, the slippage occurred early this year, and they have already started the process of rectifying it in order to get the expansion back on track.
He, however, hastened to explain, “This does not affect the aggregate work, since it will still continue, because the sand-filled area is outside of the paved area, and is intended to provide an extension for planes that overshoot the runway.”
Geer said that apart from the unforeseen and rainfall, there were no other constraints that would prevent them from getting the work done.

He explained that at the current rate of work, they will be able to complete 75 per cent of the expansion by mid-2018.

Some aspects of the expansion that will be completed within that timeframe include the extension of the north-east runway, 500 metres of the south-east runway, the taxiways and the new arrival terminals. He said the rest of the project, which includes mostly rehabilitation and renovation, will be completed by December 2018.
When asked about cost early in the year, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson told the Guyana Chronicle:
“In Guyana dollars, the total project costs $30.9B. Expenditure as at December 31, 2017 will be $24.1B.

“We are projected to spend $5B on expenditure in 2018; this will give a total of $29.1B, which leaves $1.8B for retention in 2019.
“The defect liability is one year, and we put the completion date for everything at December 2018. There are no cost implications for the delay of the project.”
In July of this year, an additional $300M was pumped into the project, on top of the $9B allocated to it in the 2017 Budget.

Minister Patterson had outlined that the terminal building area will be increase from 13,431 to 13,737 square metres; checking counters will be increased from 20 to 32; and the runway length increased from 10,066 metres to 10,090 metres.
The project was scheduled to be completed within 32 months of its commencement in 2013; however, the deadline was extended to December 1, 2017, after several delays were encountered.

The project was also put on hold following discussions between the minister and the contracting company, China Harbour Engineering Corporation (CHEC).
When completed, the US$150M expansion project is expected to yield two passenger boarding bridges for arrival and departure; a 450-seat departure area, escalators and elevators, in addition to its extended runway catering for larger categories of aircraft.