Sherriff Street/Mandela Ave. road project set to commence in January

Dec 29, 2017 News

After many delays, officials from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure have formally handed over the Sherriff Street/Mandela Avenue project to the Chinese firm, SinoHydro Corporation Limited, to commence work next month.
The US $31 million is being provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and will see an upgrade of Sherriff Street from the Rupert Craig Highway to the north and stretch south to the junction with Home Stretch Avenue in the area of National Cultural Centre.
From the Cultural Centre along Mandela Avenue, the project will see the development of a new four-lane roadway to connect with Houston. The link is a critical one between the East Bank Demerara, Central Georgetown, the East Coast Demerara and Berbice.
“Works should be starting in January,” said Geoffrey Vaughn, Coordinator, Works Services Group, Ministry of Public Infrastructure. “We have handed over the site and everything to the contractors and hopefully they will be full mobilisation.”
The project has faced delays, including a decision by the Coalition Administration to re-formalise the loan.
The project, announced under the previous government, came in for question after the administration earlier this year disclosed that it had applied to the IDB to have part of the monies applied to facilitate the administration’s affordable housing programme.
The IDB was asked to divert almost US$30M to fund new housing projects.

A section of Mandela Avenue which will be widened to accommodate the four-lane project.

Geoffrey Vaughn

More than US$60M was sitting idly for a number of years since IDB’s approval, in 2012, without the project moving off the ground.
Despite a host of top business places along Sheriff Street, the road had deteriorated rapidly. The previous administration had favoured the widening of Sheriff Street, but the Coalition Administration was against the widening and instead focused on rehabilitating the road and widening the bridges.

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