$394M East Bank Berbice road works... Internal auditors find substandard ‘finished’ road project

$394M East Bank Berbice road works… Internal auditors find substandard ‘finished’ road project

Sep 03, 2015 News

Minister David Patterson and his technical staffers meeting with
H. Nauth and Sons yesterday on the $394M East Bank Berbice road.

Contractor of the East Bank Berbice (EBB) road, H. Nauth and Sons, has committed to correcting all defective works to 12 kilometers of road before officially handing over the project to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI).

The contracting company was hired to resurface 12 kilometers of the road – between Everton and Mara.

The state of the roadway had been a major source of contention for residents, leading to protests under the previous administration.

Yesterday, a review meeting held at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure involving Minister David Patterson; technical staff from the Works Services Group and Jerry Loochan, General Manager of H. Nauth and Sons.

The contracting company is promising that remedial works will commence September 9, 2015.

According to the ministry, inspection of works were done on August 26 by the Ministry’s Internal Auditors who found that sections of the road that had “finish surface” did not meet the specifications.

“…Debris was very visible in wearing course, which results in holes emerging on the road surface. Noticeable was also vegetation growing through the road and hairline cracks which clearly indicated that the base material still has vegetable soil.”

The Ministry’s laboratory is to conduct compaction test.

Nauth Company will be executing some independent density test as well.

“To this end, a technical team from the Ministry will accompany the Contractor to inspect all defects.

The aim is to conduct a detailed assessment of the corrective works needed to bring the project within the specifications and standard as per contract.”

The $393.9M project commenced last November and was completed in June.