Houston-Versailles link best choice for new Demerara River crossing

Apr 13, 2017 News

Of the seven possible locations to construct the new Demerara River Bridge, the Houston-Versailles link has been dubbed the most economically viable option.

This was revealed during a stakeholder consultation held at the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, Kingston yesterday morning. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) and saw MPI Minister, David Patterson, Private Sector representatives, engineers, and members of civil society attending.

According to Minister Patterson, the proposed location of the bridge is not carved in stone but rather, a location that is the least ‘troublesome’.

“Least troublesome because taking into consideration the environmental impact, land acquisition, and dislocation of persons.”

Land acquisition

The Minister said the new bridge would lead to some land acquisition when it comes to building the additional road network.

“At some point during the project there will have to be some land acquisition should we proceed with whichever option there is. It’s unfortunate, but it is something that we have to do for the greater good.

“We will have consultation with those persons whose homes or property will be affected. There are encumbrances all around. People have built on reserves and all those things like that.”

The feasibility study is being funded by the Government of Guyana and is being executed by Lievense CSO Contracting BV of the Netherlands. The study commenced on January this year, and is expected to be complete in July.

Below is a chart with the possible links:

The study also looked at three different bridge types including: floating, fixed low level with a retractable span; and a fixed high level.

Should the high bridge be considered, Patterson noted that it will have to be built to somewhere around 47 meters (approx. 154 feet) high since the highest vessel ever recorded entering Guyana waters was estimated to be somewhere around 41 metres.

Funding

Quizzed on whether the funding would likely be coming from the oil monies, Patterson said no. He noted that there are several financial modules available.

“(Today) our team will be meeting with the Minister of Finance for him to weigh in and give his considerations on the different financial modules – but they are all independent of oil revenue. So obviously, we are looking to have the procurement cycle sometime in July (this year) moving forward. “

Contractors

“Dozens” of contractors have already signalling their intention to construct the bridge including those from Europe, the US, China and India.

Patterson said that the interested contractors would have already executed works of this nature in the Region.

Further, the Ministry is contemplating the commencement of the shortlist phase.

“We have decided that once we have a sign-off – which I think, I would have – we would move to shortlist three. We have a shortlist period during the finalisation…To put together a full bid for a project such as this would cost a contractor about US$500,000 and obviously no contractor wants to put that in when you have 10,15 contractors competing.

So we will be shortlisting them based on quality, experience (and) several other things based on the financing module we have.”

Structural design, cost and time

According to the Lievense CSO team leader, Arie Mol, the price to construct the bridge will depend on the location and type of structure.

He told the gathering that should the procurement process commence this year, construction will commence on 2020 and will be completed in 2021 using the Public/Private Partnership (PPP) module.

Below is the cost estimate based on some of the designs and locations: