Conflicting accounts given by Edghill, Patterson on CJIA expansion

Sep 21, 2020 News

Former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson has refuted claims by the current Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, regarding the reduced expansion of the USD $150M Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).

Former Minister of Public Works and APNU+AFC Parliamentarian, David Patterson

Current Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill

It was during his second presentation to the National Assembly that Edghill told the legislature that the scope of works was reduced by the APNU+AFC from 9,000 square meters, to 4,046. With these changes Edghill shared that an additional USD $6.5M would be necessary to bring the airport to optimum functioning.
However, Patterson sought to debunk those claims by Edghill, as he indicated in a statement to Kaieteur News yesterday that the reduction of air-bridges, and thereby the reduction of the scope of works was done before the APNU+AFC assumed government in May 2015.
Patterson asserted that it was the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) who made the changes to reduce the number of air bridges. The former minister supported his claims by sharing the airport’s monthly progress report, dated at April 2015 — one month before the APNU+AFC won the 2015 General and Regional Elections.
In the report, which was prepared by consultancy firm, MMG Group, it was recorded that on May 20, 2013, the airport’s contractor China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) had submitted a preliminary design for consideration by consultancy firms WSG and GIAC prior to commencing the Detailed Design. Moreover, there were six options of terminal and apron layout.
The report went on to state that after discussing the original six options for the apron layout, on August 2, 2013, WSG received government approval for Option D and a project budget increase of $2.8M USD to construct Option D. Since this approval, due to further efforts by the designers, an optimized version of Option D was submitted giving a seventh option to consider.
Prior to CHEC commencing the Detailed Design, WSG/GIAC asked MMM/CEMCO to undertake a high level review of all seven layout options previously provided by CHEC.
Then on August 4, 2014, a letter report was written by MMM/CEMCO to WSG stating the issues found from the review of the seven options. Following that letter report, MMM/CEMCO presented the findings of the review to WSG, GIAC, GCAA and other key CJIA stakeholders on August 13, 2014.
On November 27, 2014, WSG proposed a terminal/apron layout option with a reduced version of the Optimized Option D and an extension of the proposed pier to the existing terminal building.
On December 12, 2014, CHEC submitted drawings showing the removal of the Code D/E portion of the apron south of the control tower and integrating the Code D/E Stands on the remaining Code C portion of the apron (Option Optimized D-la). There were also two options for the extension of the proposed pier to reach the existing terminal building.
The first had the pier right to the existing terminal which involved some demolition (Option Optimized D-lb) and the second had the pier adjacent to the existing structure with an extension to the existing apron to allow for the shift in the aircraft park positions (Option Optimized D-lc).

A page of the April 2015 monthly report on the projected provide by Patterson.

On January 28, 2015, WSG/GIAC wrote a letter confirming Option Optimized D-lb was the preferred option of the Apron and instructed CHEC to commence the Detailed Design of Phase 1 based on that layout. In order to address the previous difference of opinion of costs, the scope had been reduced.
Minister Edghill had indicated that the additional works to be executed by the new government, measuring 4,954 square meters, is estimated to cost $1.2B, while the supervision and the consultancy for the design of the new project will cost $69M. While the contract for this project hasn’t yet been awarded, Edghill maintains that it is necessary in order for the airport to become a regional hub.

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