Sheriff St road expansion project to resume

The Sheriff Street/ Mandela Avenue road expansion project, which was stalled following dissatisfaction by the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) with the quality of safety and traffic-control mechanisms by the contractor, Sinohydro Corporation is now set to resume.

The Chinese company had failed to adhere to the environmental management, social management, road safety and traffic control regulations and other contractual obligations resulting in the IDB withholding payments.

Following the IDB decision to withhold further payments, the company in November had informed employees that the decision was made to terminate their services since the Ministry of

Public Infrastructure (MoPI) still owed payment for three months of work.

Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure, Jaipaul Sharma yesterday said while that was the company’s move, works on the road expansion were never suspended but instead reduced, since it was approaching the “rainy season” and according to the terms of the contract, foreign workers were permitted to take advantage of the slowdown to return home on their annual leave.

“The slowdown in work was planned because of the rainy season. Even if the company was receiving money the works would have scaled down because of the rainy weather. They couldn’t have done much,” Sharma explained.

According to Sharma, the Chinese company was owned in excess of US$3 million, forcing it to terminate the services of its workers.

Sharma’s statement yesterday differed in tenor from that of Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.

On November 18, Patterson had said that the IDB took the decision to suspend disbursements to the project due to the numerous serious health and safety infractions as well as traffic management failures by the contractor. Patterson said that Sinohydro was “warned on several occasions to rectify these issues but unfortunately to date the majority of failures identified have remained outstanding.”

This road expansion contract, he explained further, is an IDB-funded contract, which is subject to performance audits by the Bank.

“I have been on record on several occasions raising the issue about this contractor’s performance, so the suspending of disbursements by the IDB does not come as a surprise,” the minister said while noting that his ministry had already commenced actions to address the failings since some of these pose serious safety risks to the general public.

Patterson said that while the dismissal of any employee is regrettable, “the contractor should not seek to blame any other entity for the clear disregard of contractual obligations.”

Yesterday, Sharma told Stabroek News that he made several site visits with representatives from the IDB, Egis Engineering Limited (a foreign consulting firm) and local companies subcontracted to work on the project and concerns about the contractor were raised. He also noted that the IDB had carried out an audit inspection of the safety measures the company would have put in place.

At present, he stated that while there is some satisfaction with the measures put in place, there are still a few breaches that need to be addressed.

“We pointed out some areas where we would like to see improvements. Like at the entrances of businesses they had placed loam but we told them that cannot work for this rainy season and asked that they use asphalt or crusher run. Also at the construction of the bridge by the Cummings Canal, the crusher run they placed there is not adequate to accommodate the heavy traffic so we asked them to put some asphalt,” Sharma explained.

Over the last month, the company had spent time covering drains, fixing drainage, removing debris from the parapets and erecting cordons at the corners of the road.

With the amount of measures put in place, Sharma said they were able to secure funds that would pave the way for continuation of works on the road during the first quarter of 2020.

He nonetheless indicated that a report from the IDB Technical Transport Personnel and Country Representative would have to be submitted to the IDB Board of Directors informing them of the measures taken.

As it is, works are expected to pick up by mid-January, Sharma said, while indicating that the next phase of the works included excavation and pavement of the road.

The value of works certified to date is $2,154,891,702 (US$10,335,212) which is about 33% of the contract sum.

The contract is pegged at US$31.03 million and is being financed by the IDB. The project was handed over to the company early in 2018 after the contract was awarded and work commenced in the latter part of the year.

Head of the Public Infrastructure Ministry’s Work Services Group Geoffrey Vaughn had explained that the Sheriff Street to Mandela Avenue section will have an upgraded two-lane road, while Mandela Avenue, from the Cultural Centre, to the intersection with Hunter Street, and the beginning of the East Bank Highway, will be upgraded to a four-lane road. The two-year project also encompasses lane and shoulder improvements, placement of sidewalks and paved shoulders, traffic signals, streetlights, drainage upgrade works, a pedestrian overhead walkway, culverts, bridges and a roundabout. The four-lane section will also feature a dividing median along with similar components of the two-lane section.