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Dec 02, 2021 News
—-deadline for completion push to Valentine’s Day next year– says Edghill
Kaieteur News – The US$31 million Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue road project will require additional funding to complete, according to Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill.
Though the additional funds are required, there will be no major changes to the design of the road and citizens have begun to question where the over $6B that has already been spent went. Edghill who had boasted that there would have been no extension on the project told the media on Tuesday that it will now be completed for Valentine’s Day next year.
“Well I don’t have money to pay outside of the contract sum, we have had some adjustments, and we will need some additional monies to be able to cater for everything but it will be no major, major difference,” Minister Edghill explained.
He further related that he cannot definitively say if the money will come from the government, given that the matter of accumulating more monies is currently in discussion between himself and Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh. According to Edghill the US$31 million loan was reprogrammed into two sectors after his administration left government and some of it went to the adequate housing projects with the Central Housing and Planning authority (CH&PA) and the sums allocated for the road have already been utilized.
The minister went on to say that the price of materials would have changed from then to now and the ministry had to hold the contractor at prices at the time of the signing of the contract. He further went on to say that with all of the work that had to be done to the pre-existing road before moving ahead with the project, the ministry was forced to use quantities that were more than in the original bill.
The Chinese contractor, Sinohydro Corporation Limited was awarded the US$31M contract which was provided by the Inter-American Bank (IDB) back in December 2017. In the Ministry of Finance’s mid-year report it stated that within the first six months of 2021, the sum of $1B has been expended on the Sheriff-Mandela road expansion project. It was also mentioned in the report that the work done on the project thus far, included the asphaltic paving of Sheriff Street from Rupert Craig Highway to Drury Lane. Preparatory works for the over laying of asphaltic concrete on Sheriff Street and Mandela Avenue, the roundabout at the intersection of Sheriff and David Streets and the Railway Embankment. The widening and construction of drains on both sides of Sheriff Street and Mandela Avenue, and the placing of a median which commenced at the intersection of Mandela Avenue and Homestretch Avenue.
It was noted that the US$31M road project was badly mismanaged by the previous A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) administration. When the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government took office, it was keen to note that it had to expend a further $134M for works on the road project.
In 2011, the Government expended $1.7Billion on the designs for the widening of the flagship Sheriff-Mandela Road Project and on preparatory works for the widening of the East Coast Demerara Four Lane Highway between Better Hope and La Bonne Intention, where the latter project is complete.
The US$31M project was launched in 2018 but hit delays with the Coalition government threatening to yank the project from the Chinese contractor. The expansion is a major part of a holistic road network link to reduce congestion.
Meanwhile back in November 2019, this publication reported that the road expansion project was halted after the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) ceased funding due to non-compliance of the Contractor with health, safety and traffic management standards. At the time of the suspension, Former Minister with responsibility for Public Works, David Patterson, noted that the issues brought about by the Contractor’s negligence had persisted, even though the company was being engaged on its shortcomings.“Sinohydro was warned on several occasions to rectify these issues but unfortunately, the majority of failures identified remained outstanding,” the former Minister had stated.
Earlier this year the minister stated that the Sheriff/Mandela project was a mess that the PPP/C administration inherited and that it was one of similar nature as the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion project. Despite such challenges, the minister stated that since he became the minister in charge he is satisfied he got what he paid for and him along with every member of his team are elated of their progress thus far. He named it a “Success project.”
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