$85M in contracts signed to rebuild Enterprise Factory Road

Given the current deplorable state of Factory Road, residents of Enterprise, East Coast Demerara (ECD) will soon be able to use a new six-inch-thick concrete thoroughfare, as contracts for its reconstruction were signed on Wednesday.
During the simple contract signing ceremony, Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar, explained that this new roadway, measuring 700m by 4.25m, would be built to handle increased traffic.
“We wanted this road to be a concrete road, to withstand the kind of traffic that will end up on it. We wanted to make sure that we put that kind of infrastructure here,” Indar said.

“These roads, when they were built…they didn’t build them to deal with [significant] kinds of weights moving on them,” he added.
To complete the project in the stipulated three-month timeline, a $42.7 million contract was awarded to R&B Investments Inc. to complete one half of the road, while another contract, amounting to $42.3 million, was awarded to JS Engineering Services and Supplies to finish the other half.
“We went through evaluation in a competitive way, and we have selected two contractors to deal with this road. We split it in half, so the work can be done quickly, so 350m for one lot and the other 350m for the other lot – for them to finish it quickly in the dry season, because rain is going to be upon us by October,” Indar explained.
“The contractors that were selected, that bid competitively — they have good track records to finish it quickly,” Indar assured.
In the interim, heavy-duty trucks will be redirected to other suitable routes.
A blank Bill of Quantity will be issued to the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to increase monitoring of this Factory Road project. This project comes about a month after a visit to the community by Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
Since Jagdeo’s engagement, some 20 roads at Foulis and 14 roads at Enterprise have been rehabilitated.
“We walked all the streets in Enterprise, we collected [information on] the ones that were bad, we made sure that we sent back the team, and we did 14 roads. In Foulis, we put down about 17,000 pounds of asphalt, and in Enterprise, we put down about 2000 pounds of asphalt in two weeks,” Indar said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has gone out to tender for revetment works and the construction of culverts in the lead-up to other roadworks at Enterprise.
“This area, for the past two months, from Foulis, Coldingen, Enterprise and so on, have seen significant amounts of work,” Indar noted.