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City’s roadways for major repairs as $476M in contracts signed

Apr 30, 2011 News

– Sheriff, Water Streets, Cane Grove access road included

By Leonard Gildarie

Government says that it has been buying more equipment and placing more engineers on its payroll to reduce the state’s dependence on private contractors.
The admission was made yesterday by Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, as several contracts to the tune of $476M were signed for the repairs of a number of Georgetown streets and the main access road to Cane Grove, Mahaica. Signing the contracts on behalf of the Ministry was Permanent Secretary, Balram Balraj.
Two engineers are also being recruited specifically to monitor the projects, Benn announced during the signing at his office in Kingston.
Gaico Construction Services Inc was awarded contracts totaling $105M. That company is tasked with repairing the network of roads in Subryanville, Section K Campbellville, Newtown, Prashad Nagar, Campbellville and Kitty.
Additionally, four individual roads are slated for rehabilitation. These include Railway Road, Kitty; First Street, Campbellville and Omai Street, Prashad Nagar.
Dipcon Engineering, awarded $99M in contracts, will be conducting maintenance of the road network in 12 areas including those in Kingston, Alberttown and Queenstown.
Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited, awarded over $214M in contracts, will be conducting maintenance and rehabilitation of mainly roads in the south Georgetown area.
These include networks in the Meadow Brook Gardens; Tucville; Guyhoc; Albouystown; Alexander Village; Charlestown; Lamaha Spring; West La Penitence and West Ruimveldt and Hadfield Street and Water Street, Werk-en-rust, among other roads.
Also for maintenance and rehabilitation are roads in the Stevedore Scheme; East Ruimveldt, Lodge Road; Shirley Field Ridley; Rasville; Roxanne Burnham Gardens; GuyHoc; South Ruimveldt Park and Gardens; Festival City; North Ruimveldt and the Joint Services Scheme.
Sections of the Mandela/Sheriff Highway; Aubrey Barker Street; Avocado Place; Freeman Street, East La Penitence; Hill Street, Lodge and Durban Backlands are also earmarked for construction and rehabilitation.
In total, Courtney Benn will be working on 38 city roads.
Another contract was also signed with H. Nauth and Sons for $57.4M for the Cane Grove road to be repaired. The road provides a main access to that rice farming community and will be asphalted.
Works are expected to start early May and expected to end within four months.
Yesterday, the Minister noted that Government was cognisant of the fact that the city roads fell under the responsibility of the Mayor and City Councillors of Georgetown but decided to nevertheless conduct repair works because of the critical function they play in the transportation network.
The reality is that 10,000 new vehicles are hitting the country’s roads every year and this poses fresh challenges and strain to the networks of streets.
Shortly, another $150M in contracts will be handed out to repair roads in Regions Two, Three, Four, and Six, Benn disclosed.
One key road set for repair is Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam.
Last year, the Ministry hired a number of new engineers to boost its capacity with a number of Cubans also helping.
The Minister pointed out that compared to a few years ago, the workload of Public Works has grown tremendously, testing the engineers.
Regarding compliance with contracts, it was revealed that a number of contractors were release because of failing to deliver.
“I want to stress that we have been working closely with contractors to ensure that they meet their deadlines,” the Minister said, noting that supplies of materials have become more challenging in face of the numerous construction projects across the country.
Questioned about the moves by the Ministry to reduce its dependency on contractors, the official said that they have been “quietly” procuring a fleet.
Recently, the Ministry carried out $25M road works to St. Cuthberts Mission, using some of these very assets.

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