Berbice River Bridge gets new completion date - February 2009

Berbice River Bridge gets new completion date – February 2009

Oct 02, 2008 News

The much-anticipated Berbice River Bridge new completion date could be some time in February.
This new deadline amends the earlier one of October 2008, because there have been a number of obstacles during its construction, including the delay of vital parts needed in the construction of the Retractor Span.
The parts which were being shipped to Guyana via the Europe West Indies Line (EWL) shipping line were returned to their point of origin in the United Kingdom (UK) after that particular shipping line declared bankruptcy on July 2, last. The containers were apparently unpacked and then repacked and shipped using the European Caribbean Line (ECL) shipping line.
Sources have also said that the construction of the bridge has also been hampered by difficulties encountered while driving the piles for the bridge.
Chairman of the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated’s (BBCI) Technical Committee, Bert Carter, noted that while the arrival of the parts had been delayed, this did not play a significant role for BBCI, in terms of cost, as the contract which had been awarded for the construction of the Bridge was a fixed price contract.
Under a fixed price contract, the price being charged for the construction of the bridge will remain the same, whether or not the bridge is constructed on schedule.
According to sources, the money that would be used to pay for the construction of the bridge was placed in a bank account and generated interest.
The company building the bridge is now asking that it be paid what it was originally promised in addition to the interest which has been generated in the bank account.
The Demerara Harbour Bridge General Manager, Rawlston Adams, who is also overseeing the building of the access roads to the Berbice Bridge, reaffirmed that these access roads will “be finished by the time the Bridge is completed.”
The construction of these access roads has been another of the challenges the Berbice River Bridge has faced.
According to the contract signed by DIPCON, the contracting company charged with building the access roads, it has until April 2009 to complete the roads with the necessary lighting and markings valued at US$8.7 million. Adams said that there were two different deadlines in the contract with DIPCON.
The first stipulated that within 18 months of the start of the Bridge project, the access roads should have been completed. Adams noted that this deadline would be met. The second deadline was a 24-month deadline to complete the drainage, lighting and marking of the access roads.
The construction of these access roads has displaced some 35 families on the western bank, who had to be relocated, while on the Eastern Bank persons were compensated for some 87 strips of farmland.
Sources have said that the Berbice Bridge will be handed over to the Government of Guyana 22 years after it has been opened. The bridge is being built by a group of six private shareholders; however, the process of the construction of the bridge was facilitated by the government.
The bridge will be privately owned for 21 years, at the end of which the Government should take possession as the shareholders would have been expected to have recovered their money by the end of this period of time.

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Berbice River Bridge gets new completion date – February 2009

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Berbice River Bridge gets new completion date – February 2009

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