WITH plans for Guyana’s major infrastructural transformation moving apace, a local company, Pile Pro Inc. (PPI), is investing some $419 million to set up a Pre-Stressed Concrete (PC)Piles manufacturing facility on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

The company is making this major investment to take advantage of the booming construction sector, which, it noted, has seen a shortage of concrete piles.

This is according to its project summary which was recently submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for review.

According to Pile Pro Inc. a Guyanese-owned business, the concrete piles produced at the facility will be used in the construction of wharves, bridges, and buildings, among other major infrastructural works.

“Pre-Stressed Concrete (PC) piles is a construction product produced by casting concrete together with wire stands and hardeners in a reusable mold which is then cured in a controlled environment. These piles, being strengthened by the steel wire strands, are generally used for foundation purposes for buildings, bridges, wharves, etc.,” the project summary read.

PPI intends to utilise raw materials such as sand, aggregates, cement, hardeners, and wire strands to produce its PC piles. The company intends to use some five acres of the mined-out land in Dora to produce and stockpile its piles. It will have immediate access to construction-grade sand, one of the main raw materials for the production of piles.

PPI is situated close to a wharf which it will use to secure its other raw materials, namely, aggregates, cement, and wire strands.

Piles will be produced to 30 meters long, a feat unmatched in Guyana. This of course will make it difficult to traverse Guyana’s roads so the company will use the existing port facilities of Silica Sandport Inc. (SSI) to move its piles via the Demerara River to the marketplace. The method of transportation will therefore be via the river.

The anticipated volume of production per month for PPI is around 2,500 metres of PC piles. Each month, this would require 200 tons of sand, 120 tons of cement, 250 tons of stone, 10 tons of steel, and half a ton of hardener. Water supply for production will come from the Demerara River (at 10m° per day) and electricity will be provided by the power-generation facilities of Silica Sandport Inc., a company that lies adjacent to the proposed location for PPI.

PPI has already procured the molds capable of producing four pieces of 0.36 by 0.36 metres by 30 metres and four pieces of 0.41 by 0.41 metres by 30 metres long piles every two days.

According to the company, its estimated workforce for the construction phase is six persons, with a duration of two months. Stage two, which involves the installation of the foundation for the concrete batching plant and molds, will have a workforce of ten for a duration of four months.

The company’s permanent workforce for the production and storage of the concrete piles is estimated to be eight persons and this phase will carry on indefinitely.