Linden contractor in hot water after $11M retaining wall collapses

Dec 02, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The retaining walls of a major thoroughfare in the Silvertown community, of Wismar, Linden, collapsed on Tuesday, two days after it was constructed by Contractor, David Sugrim, of D&R Construction Company.

The collapsed retaining wall

The 16ft road was completed on the 28th November 2021, to the tune of 11 million dollars. Sugrim was awarded the contract by the Regional Democratic Council, Region 10. Regional Executive Officer, Dwight John, said that the road was constructed and retainers were added to alleviate flooding in the area. It was built higher and wider so as to accommodate two lanes. “We would have had a very low road, that was prone to flooding for many, many years. What we did was to raise the wall so that we can get a higher road. The retaining wall was done from one end to the other end of the road, but as a result of pressure, the highest end of it collapsed, which is about 100 feet of 1800 feet of the entire wall,” John explained.
He said the corrective works will commence immediately and this should be completed by the end of the week.
The contractor told Kaieteur News, that contrary to the accusation that he did substandard works, the wall collapsed as a result of the compaction and the earth’s pressure. Regional Chairman Deron Adams however, called him out for executing substandard work and this he said was observed when the RDC Works Committee inspected the road.
Residents also claimed that the project was done hurriedly and that the foundation of the road and drain was not solid enough, before the walls were added.
To ensure the collapse does not reoccur, REO John said braces will now be added. “Throughout the length of the road, we will be putting braces so that we can keep the wall in place because we will have heavy duty trucks traversing this area from time to time, so we are trying to prevent anymore from this happening. The project was awarded in May 2021.