Govt. must retender new Demerara River Bridge

Mar 24, 2022 News

– Patterson cites budgetary allocation while tenders invited for build, design, finance options

By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – In November 2020, the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Public Works invited Expressions of Interest for the construction of a new bridge over the Demerara River. It was in October of last year that bids were received from contractors for the design, construction and financing of the proposed four-lane structure.

The proposed alignment for the new Demerara River Bridge

Even though government said that the contractors would be financing the project, in its 2022 Budget some $21.1B was allocated for the construction of the new bridge. To this end, former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson is of the view that this “confusion” mixed with the government’s worrying silence on the project may brew corruption.
In an interview with this publication on Wednesday, the Member of Parliament (MP) argued that the country has had negative experiences with design-build-finance models in the past, as he made the case for a complete restart of the tendering process for the new bridge. He reasoned: “The country has tried these design-build concepts before and they have never been successful. We can talk about the Marriott, we can talk about the CJIA (Cheddi Jagan International Airport) and those things like that, and of course this time there is money in the budget, however they went out to tender for the contractors to provide financing, so there is a bit of confusion there and no clarity whatsoever,” Patterson said.
“You can’t go out to tender seeking a contractor to finance the project and later you place the project in the budget to be financed via the national coffers and will still be using the old tender process to award a contract. The tender price is inflated since the bid price includes the contractors’ financing and other related costs,” Patterson added.
Offering some advice, he urged that if the project is retendered and funded by the government, Guyana may be able to attract more reputable international firms, which may have steered clear from the initial Invitation For Bids, due to their inability to compete with Chinese financing arrangements. While still on the financing aspect of the Bridge, the former Minister argued that the administration has been completely mum on what the new toll would be under this model. While referencing the Berbice River Bridge, Patterson said that the toll fees are presently so high that some users can not even afford to use it.
“The Berbice Bridge of course is a financial disaster and they wanted to pass it on to the bridge users but the minister had to put out an order stopping them,” he reminded. To this end, the former minister said that he believes Guyana should be financing the new structure, with funding from the oil resources, to avoid years of interest to Chinese contractors, in this case.
With regard to the construction phase or duration of the project, government has constantly promised that the bridge would be completed within two years of the signing of the contract. This promise, according to Patterson is nothing short of a fallacy, as a two-year construction period for such a massive project is simply “unrealistic”.
Design of the new bridge
In addition to Guyana financing the project, Patterson also shares the view that the local engineers should be designing the structure, so as to save the country some expenses. “The other route we can take is hire an international consultant to partner with local engineers who build bridges.”
The former Minister was keen to note too that local engineers or consultants would have to review the design submitted by the Chinese contractor before it is granted approval for construction, which demonstrates local capacity.
Background on the contract for the new Demerara River Crossing
On November 1, last year, the Ministry of Finance announced that Cabinet had granted its no-objection for the Ministry of Public Works to engage China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. to construct the new bridge. At that time, it was pointed out that the project would be done under the Design Finance and Build (DFB) model with construction expected to conclude within two years.
However, in February of this year, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo during an interview with a foreign news outlet explained that the administration ended negotiations with the Chinese contractor as the financing option was too high. China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited submitted a bid of US$256,638,289.
It was later revealed that government was in talks with the second lowest bidder, a Consortium of Chinese companies to construct the new bridge. The firms: China Railway Construction Corporation International; China Railway Caribbean Company Limited; and China Railway Engineering Bureau Group Company Limited submitted three financial proposals of US$260,852,464, US$260,852,464 and US$300,000,000.
For this project, bidders were advised by the Ministry that they are required to bid on two options, a Design –Build and Finance option and a Design-Build-Operate, and Finance option. It is unclear as to which option the government had selected.
Features to be included on the new bridge would be collision protection, navigation span to accommodate Handymax vessel Navigation aids, lighting, signage, and all other ancillary works, access road with a minimum of 50 metres up to abutments and toll collection buildings and ancillary buildings on the West Bank of the Demerara River (WBD). It will not require opening or retraction to allow for the passage of vessels, as is the arrangement with the existing structure. The proposed location for the New Demerara River Bridge will see the structure being laid between Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara and La Grange on the Western end of the Demerara River.