Special team to evaluate proposals for new Demerara River Bridge

Mar 21, 2014 News

A team is still to be put together to assess the Expressions of Interests submitted to build a new bridge across the Demerara River.
This is according to Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, who made the disclosure during a brief interview yesterday. He told reporters that a team for the evaluation is being put together to look at the proposals He also said that there have been proposals made for the members of the team and that these are to be finalized.
A number of Chinese and Indian Companies are vying to build the New Demerara Bridge river crossing being handled by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
At the time of the opening, 22 Expressions of Interest were submitted.
All the proposals were opened privately at NICIL and not at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, publicly, given that it is the Government’s holding company that is handling the project.
According to information reaching this newspaper, the proposals will be evaluated and ranked, at which point in time those shortlisted will be invited to submit their financial and technical proposals.
This latest mega project to be undertaken by the Guyana Government will see the use of the same debt and equity financial structure utilizing a public-private partnership, as was the case with the Berbice Bridge, the Georgetown Marriott and the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project.
In the call for partners, Government said that the project will be implemented using a Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) model, “in a manner similar to the Berbice Bridge.”
According to the Guyana Government, the responses received from the call for expressions of interest will be used to guide the selection of a partner or partners who will work with government to design and implement the project.
The project will see NICIL creating a special purpose company “financed by debt and equity contributions, following a public/private partnership model.” The call for expressions of interest had stated clearly that “The GoG is not bound to accept any Expression of Interest.”
A pre-feasibility study was done for the construction of a new river bridge by the Public Works Ministry and has identified the best location for the bridge to be between Houston on the East Bank of Demerara and Versailles on the West Bank of the river.
As it relates to the tolls to be charged, the pre-feasibility study predicts that user tolls were considered to increase at a rate of two per cent per year above the existing regime.
The study indicated that “a detailed feasibility study should be done to incorporate exogenous costs and benefits not considered in this study, as well as a financial analysis that addresses the concerns of project-financing and environmental impacts.”
The existing two-lane floating bridge was constructed in 1978 by the UK firm Thomas Storey Engineers Limited and had a life of 10 years. From 1995 to 1998 the bridge underwent major rehabilitation by the Damien Ship Yards of the Netherlands at a cost of US$9M and was given an extended life of 15 years (from 1995).
According to the pre-feasibility report, at present the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) carries out intensive annual maintenance and element replacement activities on the bridge structure to provide a continuous level of service, and this can be coupled with increasing traffic volumes and level of Government subventions to warrant consideration of bridge replacement.
At present, the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation is responsible for the management and collection of tolls, and the average annual revenue collection is approximately US$1.9M.
Between 2002 and 2011, the Guyana Government provided in excess of US$12M in subventions to support the operations of the existing bridge. During that same period the revenue collected from tolls was about 75 per cent of the subvention.
The report indicates that while there were no national consultations during the pre-feasibility phase, these are planned for the detailed feasibility phase. It says too that major Private Sector stakeholders and agencies such as the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSC), Guyana Shipping Association, Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GL&SC), Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE) and the Ministry of Finance, were closely engaged.

Latest News

Special team to evaluate proposals for new Demerara River Bridge

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Clarendon College too good for Dolphin as Annai Sec’ holds Speyside...

Glasgow excided for MLS journey with Chicago Fire

Matthews slams unbeaten 85 as Windies Women...

No room to breathe as five more teams to advance...

Sammy to be appointed as West Indies Senior...

Bangladesh hold nerve to defend 148 and take 1-0...

Features/Columnists

The stakes are high in Guyana’s democracy

Let the asylum seekers go: a first step for Venezuela to rebuild relations in the Americas

Cash grant-he last stop

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Special team to evaluate proposals for new Demerara River Bridge

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]