Government’s ‘interim’ status stalls new Demerara River bridge
The “interim” status of the APNU+AFC government has resulted in the holdup of major projects including the new Demerara River bridge and Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson says that no contracts would be awarded during this time.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t launch, we wouldn’t go through with any project at this interim stage. We won’t award a contract…during this phase, obviously,” Patterson told Stabroek News last week.
He explained that while preparatory works, such as planning and preparing documents for the undertaking of a geotechnical survey, will continue, government would not be awarding any new contracts until after the elections.
“All the preparatory work is being done at the moment. The preparatory works continues, the whole processing continues. A geotechnical survey is a survey and it doesn’t matter which government it is and should still remain but I do think that during this interim period, I would not go further anyhow. I for sure wouldn’t award any contracts,” he said.
“The documentation [which] is a tender document is being prepared and that will continue but for sure we won’t award a contract during this interim period,” he emphasised.
The project, which will see a new bridge connecting Houston on the East Bank of Demerara and Versailles on the West Bank, was envisaged by the APNU+AFC government to begin in 2018 and be completed by 2020 but it faced several delays.
The bridge was originally slated to comprise three lanes but this was later upgraded to four lanes.
Patterson subsequently said that government was looking at a model where it would enter into a public/private partnership for the bridge’s construction.
In February this year, two months after the passage of a no-confidence motion that toppled the APNU+AFC administration, Patterson informed that given the change in technical specifications, government would once again invite bidders to submit expressions of interest for the construction of the four-lane high span fixed bridge through a private-public partnership agreement.
“It is with the Private-Public Partnership Unit, housed out of the Ministry of Finance, and they have contracted the services of some overseas experts and they are finalising the request for proposals at the moment,” he had told this newspaper when asked for an update.
“What we will be asking for is for bids to come in based on these new criteria. And what are the new criteria? The new criteria are in this private partnership framework… an expression of interest on this option we have finalised, which is a four-lane high span fixed bridge,” he added.
Since February, the project has further stalled with Patterson now explaining that government will not be going forward with implementation until after the elections. “We will not go forward with a contract award at this phase,” he said.