Construction of B -shortage of mater
Labour and materials shortages are being blamed for significant delays in the construction of the Bamia Primary School which was controversially awarded to a company of entertainers and sports persons with no prior experience.
The Linden project which comes under the Ministry of Local Government is now some four months behind schedule.
The new building to house the school is scheduled to be completed in the latter part of 2024.
When Stabroek News visited the construction site yesterday, minor progress was observed since this newspaper visited last year. Works progressed from just the foundation frame to walls going up on the lower flat and construction of the septic tanks. Workers at the site were also preparing form boards to cast the beams for the upper flat, portions of the land were backfilled with sand and construction of the gymnasium building has commenced. Walls for the gymnasium are presently being put in place.
Stabroek News understands that due to the unavailability of materials, works were scaled down and it was only recently the pace of work increased.
“We had some serious challenges. We are not on schedule but the work is now picking up back,” Akanni Blair, Quality Control Manager at the construction site said. He told Stabroek News that with the ongoing construction boom in the country there is a shortage of labour and materials. This, he explained has affected their work as other major projects ongoing in the region have absorbed the available workers.
According to Blair, due to the difficulties in sourcing materials in a timely manner, workers who were previously available sought employment with other companies. “We didn’t had materials on time and workers went to other places to work. Every project has labour challenges. We had to bring workers from Berbice,” he explained. The contracted company St8ment Investment Inc., has 38 employees on site including those from Berbice. Blair noted that apart from being challenged by labour, they also found difficulty in sourcing aggregates. He said this has been a major challenge as it prevented them from casting columns and beams for the second floor of the building. It was only last week they were able to source 150 tonnes of stones and plyboard to commence works on the beams.
Spiked
Since the discovery of oil in 2015, the cost of stone gradually increased and spiked in 2021. Government had attributed the steep increase to the infrastructural and construction boom that has seen high demand for such building materials since it took office in 2020. This, it noted, can be coupled with the gradual reopening of the economy, which had seen a slowdown due to the restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This newspaper recently reported that persons have responded to government’s call to supply stone and some are sourcing the commodity from Jamaica. “The ministry and government had indicated that we needed stone and crusher run. That went out by way of public ads. Companies from Guyana have engaged in the procurement and delivery of stone to Guyana at a particular price. Some of them were buying from Suriname but some are now buying from Jamaica. People who responded to our public ad are bringing in stone and some is from Jama Edghill told t ing on the sh the time.
Edghill sa have increas enough and the potential issue. “They it is still not rent demand The basic thi find the ston issue in the s the barging. the logistics, ed they were columns for
Blair also and sand a months. “Eve had cement s of plyboard orders two to cash paymen ed. In Decem pal, Rawle F pleted at lea time, he exp lenged with t due to the hig