‘Technically sound’, ‘feasible’ Hope Canal project delayed until mid-January

Dec 21, 2010 News

Works on the Hope Canal Project have apparently been stalled as a result of heavy rains. According to a statement by the Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, undertaking the works has become dangerous under the conditions created by the recent inclement weather.
Apparently the recent rains have been exacerbating the poor conditions on the ground at the site, a situation that “threatens the integrity of the excavators and excavations.”

The Hope Canal excavation works

The Minister stated, yesterday afternoon, “I have decided that I’m not going to proceed until the weather improves to my satisfaction.”
The day the works were declared as officially open, lead consultant of CEMCO, Raymond Latchmansingh, spoke of the terrain that the canal would have to pass through.
He pointed out that during the geotechnical survey the light rig that they were using kept sinking in the soft soil forcing them to resort to another soil analysis technique called CPT or Cone Penetration Testing).
In the design report that was issued after the investigations were completed it was noted that boreholes between the Crown Dam and the Cross Dam were inaccessible even to the CPT machine for testing.
Minister Persaud himself commented on the nature of the terrain at the very same event, saying that “a large part of the land was swamp where the men would sink almost to their waists.”
In a letter written by Engineer and former head of the Sea Defence Project, Malcolm Alli, it was posited that the government “may have to abandon the Hope Canal Project on account of the poor soil conditions existing between Crown Dam and the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC)”.
This is not the first criticism that has been leveled at the project; and most of the critics are retired engineers with extensive experience in the Drainage and Irrigation such as Malcolm Alli, Maurice Veecock and Charles Sohan.
These men have also raised these issues time and time again in the newspapers highlighting numerous problems in the design and construction of this canal.
Charles Sohan, in his most recent letter, which was published in the Stabroek News, calls the Minister’s pronouncement “bewildering”.
He justifies his opinion by pointing out that for “those who are familiar with the terrain through which this canal will traverse know that weather conditions should not have affected the operation of excavations/excavation to the extent that work had to come to a halt.”
He goes on to point out that even if excavation works cannot be carried out in certain parts of the proposed canal’s path there are still significant sections of the canal between the Seawall and the Crown Dam which “could be excavated all year round irrespective of weather conditions” which in his opinion could only slow but not stop the works.
Sohan went on to point out several projects that required excavations just as complex as those on the Hope Canal in conditions just as poor that were undertaken in very severe weather.
He said, “Excavation works at these projects were never shut down because of weather conditions. If their operations were weather dependent and the contractors were waiting for ideal conditions to execute their work, they would still be excavating.”
These recent events have all taken place against the background of Minister Persaud’s adamant claims of the project’s feasibility and technical soundness.
Meanwhile, the days tick away and as Sohan points out in his letter, Persaud may very well have to demit office in some five months and the new administration could scrub the project leaving the taxpayers to bear the brunt of a $3B burden.