–Gov’t ‘will not tolerate’ actions to change project’s cost, Edghill cautions company, supervisory firm
By Feona Morrison

GUYANA and China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) on Thursday signed a US$75.8 million contract for road repair works for the East Bank of Demerara (EBD) length of road from Good Success to Timehri.
A US$117 million loan that Guyana recently obtained from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is financing this enormous road project.

The project will be supervised by Sheladia Associates Incorporated, a US consulting company with experience in structures and facilities, transportation infrastructure, energy, rural development and water resources and sanitation.

In his remarks during the signing ceremony in the Public Works Ministry’s boardroom, Minister of Public Works Bishop Juan Edghill said that the contract is “unique”, since it is the first design-build project Guyana and the IDB are working on.
For this reason, he expressed the government’s deep appreciation for the partnership it has historically had with the bank.

Minister Edghill said that in order to guarantee that the nation receives value for its money in terms of quality work, the government has made considerable strides over the years in relation to enhancing the Public Works Ministry’s human resource capacity.

He said: “Our [the government’s] approach is getting the best contractor in place, and getting the skills at a higher supervisory level from around the world while we have our own in-house team. That is quite a huge team of varying skillsets and levels of experience…”

The Public Works Minister said that this project entails doing 23.7 kilometres of roadway, fixing some ancillary roads, bridges and culverts, and increasing safety features among other tasks.

He continued: “The corridor will be upgraded to two lanes; there will be increased safety features. You know that the East Bank corridor, while it has provided access to commute hundreds of thousands of Guyanese daily, including the link to our international airport, we’ve also had some concerns there for road and traffic safety. This project will address that, and there will be features for pedestrians and cyclists, concrete drains, and the installation of LED [light emitting diode] street lights, thermos plastic road markings and traffic signs…”

Minister Edghill asked the contractor to complete the work “as fast as possible”, stressing that the contract had a 36-month or three-year duration.

He stated that although the building of this road will benefit the general public, and fit into the PPP/C’s overall development plan, it is closely related to the Soesdyke-Linden Highway renovations.

The minister added: “This is directly connected to the works on the new Wismar Bridge, turning it into four lanes, and getting on to the Linden-Mabura road, which is under construction. And of course, we have the 45 other bridges that are being built to international standards all the way into Lethem…”

Edghill said that the government has made large investments and interventions to provide alternate bypasses to relieve the flow of traffic while the road is under construction.
He related that constant communication will take place between the ministry, the contractor, and the consultant in order to reduce any inconvenience that the road works will cause.

“I would expect the contractor to engage the possibility of working at nights and early hours of the morning when we have less traffic,” he said, referring to the significance of this roadway to CRBC officials.
Guyana needs to adapt to the night shift work culture, Edghill emphasised.

Edghill issued a warning to the consulting company and contractor, stating that the government “will not tolerate” any actions taken by them to alter the project’s cost.
He further told the contractor and consultant: “Knowledge transfer is big for us here at the ministry.

So, while we execute major projects, we have a contractor in place; we have a consultancy in place. Please see us (my team) as people that you can work with. Let them benefit from the knowledge transfer. We have a country to build. The next 10 years is going to be massive in terms of what we are doing in Guyana. We need all the skills onboard…”

The minister mentioned that traffic management is a component of this project and asked the traffic Police to take pictures of vehicles that break the regulations, alluding to the death of a Police rank while performing traffic management responsibilities.

“We got to stop the lawlessness,” the Public Works Minister stressed.
According to Ivan Gaviria, Chief of Operations at the IDB (Guyana), the financial institution is “excited and thrilled” to be a part of this historic contract signing in order to continue its development cooperation with Guyana.

That stretch of road is being upgraded under the IDB’s Programme to Support Climate Resilient Road Infrastructure Development which aims to advance Guyana’s safe, efficient, and climate-resilient road and associated infrastructure and to improve road service quality and utility service along the East Bank corridor.