State of the Industry…Major Public Infrastructure projects in focus

Oct 02, 2016 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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Ministers David Patterson and Annette Ferguson met with the media recently to provide the public with progress reports on several major developmental projects. Last Sunday we reported on our efforts to build competent skill pools, develop our ability to function effectively in every kind of local industry; we discussed the CBJI airport expansion; the private sector’s role in nation building, and returning normalcy to GPL.
We ended that first segment on the topic Modernizing Port Georgetown, and we began to enumerate what ails the Port, this main hub of commerce in Guyana.
For a very long time the business community has been suffering from the effects of an historically poor port. Entrepreneurs have been paying higher tariffs and charges, and more demurrages because their imports and exports have to enter or leave Port Georgetown in smaller amounts, on smaller vessels that have to make more frequent trips. The slightly larger cargo ships get stuck on sandbanks and in mud when they attempt to navigate the Demerara Navigational Channel even at high tide. Imagine the risks at night on a shallow river with no navigational lights, no bells or bouys, and miniscule portside and seaside security.
The previous PPP government had demanded in 2013 that private business owners operating along Port Georgetown must find the financing themselves for sea/river side security, to replace the decades-old or missing navigational aids, to purchase their own fire fighting boats and equipment, and every other facility that every modern port is supposed to have. The PPP had demanded that the owners of port operations find the means and the money to dredge the 20 years’ worth of silt that grows harder on the Demerara riverbed, i.e. in addition to maintaining their own berths.
A public/private partnership and a Port Development working group had been formed after the Shipping Association approached the then Minister of Works to ask for Port Development to be made a priority. They were told then, among other things, that the PPP government had other plans that did not include Port Georgetown. Their plans had centered around the still-to-emerge Deep Water Harbour that CGX was blueprinting in the Berbice River. The sitting government told the Shipping Association and its members to produce a proposal for upgrading the Port. Instead of a mere proposal, the shippers and cargo handlers wrote a detailed Concept Paper for the full rehabilitation of the Georgetown Harbour, a proposal that included sourcing funding and skills. As was expected, nothing was done after that Working Group was established, nothing but talk.
This time is different. Minister Patterson may soon revitalize that working group, not to fund the infrastructural works, but to help the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to shape an achievable modernization programme for Port Georgetown.
Major repairs for Supenaam Stelling
The coalition government has approved $17M (approx.) to rehabilitate the Good Hope/Pomona Supenaam Ferry Stelling in the Essequibo, and the works will commence shortly. According to the Minister, engineers from the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation will execute the repairs – driving new cluster piles, and replacing eight structural steel beams, metal plates and other components of the link span bridge. They will also replace the steel plate decking, structural framing and support mechanism for the pontoon.
The damaged portion of the concrete decking of the stelling and the catwalk will also be reconstructed and reinstalled.
The stelling was severely damaged at the end of July when passenger ferry, MV Sabanto, one of the two roll-on roll-off ferry vessels built by the Chinese, crashed into it after encountering some difficulties on the approach to the stelling.
This stelling has seen more than its fair share of woes since it was built in 2010. The $547M Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) funded infrastructure was built to reduce travelling time between Parika and the Essequibo Coast by at least 90 minutes. It has replaced the stelling at Adventure. It was built by BK International Inc. specifically to accommodate the two new vessels from China. The Good Hope/Supenaam wharf extends 400 feet into Essequibo River and consists of a reinforced concrete frame supported on land by 50 timber piles.
Before the end of 2010, the construction firm BK International was accused by the government of ‘bungling’ the work as they attempted to justify spending some $50M to ‘correct the flaws’. The contractor and the Ministry of Public Works spent a lot of time, air space and newspaper column inches blaming each other for the seemingly endless problems at the stelling. First it was the end beam of the loading ramp that collapsed, then the contractor accused the Ministry of ‘messing up’ the design and specifications. It had already been determined by knowledgeable civil engineers that indeed the “design had flaws, the construction had flaws and supervision had flaws”. This was confirmed by then Cabinet Secretary Luncheon.
The flaws had been discovered soon after the Transport and Harbours Department took over the facility the following year. The stelling had been deemed to be inadequate to handle the typical flotation, especially the mechanisms that would allow heavy trucks and other moving weight to get on and off the vessels.
Residents and businessmen in the Essequibo had complained of the inconvenience and the dangers that the unstable stelling had posed to their vehicles, heavy and light machinery, their produce and market stock.
The recent collision of the MV Sabanto only added to the litany of errors and woes for the good people of the Essequibo. The Ministry of Public Infrastructure further apologises to you all for the inconveniences you have suffered, and for the delay in starting these repairs. Please be assured that we will do all in our power to return normalcy to the Supenaam Stelling in November.

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