$5.2M Sluice Door estimate questionable

Feb 28, 2011 News

While the residents of Stryken Hovel and the surrounding farming communities on the West Bank of Demerara are welcoming the decision to construct a sluice door to replace the damaged one, eyebrows have been raised as to the cost that the engineers have put forward for the project.
The bids for the project were opened on Tuesday last and the Government Engineer’s estimate is $5,214,400.
This newspaper visited the sluice that measures 16 feet in width and 11 feet in height.
The damaged sluice, which was reportedly built in 2002, was constructed by a contractor George Sarjoo, who is said to be a favoured individual when it comes to the issuance of contracts.

The Stryken Hovel Sluice

The sluice, according to individuals close to the project, was a disaster waiting to happen as it was never built to the correct width and as such, over time, the sides of the door quickly wore out due to friction and have now reached to the point where it slips out from the grooves meant to hold it in place.
The sluice door was reportedly never tarred properly despite at least three set of remedial works recently undertaken.
It was explained that if the door is lifted to allow for the intake or release of water, the pressure of the water would force it out of the grooves that are meant to hold it in place.
The door would be pulled in the direction of the flow of the water and would be dangling and suspended by the wire rope in place to lift and lower it.
Because the door cannot be lifted to help to drain the area when it rains, several thousand acres of farmland become inundated and the sluice door has to remain closed.
This has been the situation for several months.
It is a double door sluice and one of the doors is functioning but given the inability of the other door to function, the entire relief system can only work at half of its capacity.
This has resulted in the reduction of drainage in the required time.