Contractors criticised for damaging N/A main access roads

…residents up in arms over unnecessary inconvenience

Vehicle operators are up in arms over the state of two roads in New Amsterdam after contractors downed tools subsequent to digging up two main streets in the capital town of Region Six, (East Berbice/Corentyne) and leaving them inaccessible to pedestrian traffic and partially closed to vehicular traffic.
According to residents in the area, what is happening could best be described as chaotic.
One of the contractors has said the Public Infrastructure Ministry (MPI) is paying him to mill out eight inches of solid asphalt to replace same with one and a half inches of asphalt on Main Street. This work started six weeks ago, and to facilitate it, Main Street was closed, shutting off vehicular access to four secondary schools.
Residents told this publication that no arrangements were made to first repair the section of Water Street in New Amsterdam which is now being used.
A $19 million contract was signed by the MPI with Associated Construction Services (ACS) for patching damaged parts of Main Street between King Street and Philadelphia Street.
Member of the Regional Tender Board (RTB), Zamal Hussain, told this publication there is no way the RTB can monitor what the contractor is doing. He noted that the Regional Administration has taken note that the contracting firm has removed solid asphalt, which has been there since 1972, and has been taking off the heaviest vehicle.
“The situation is reaping havoc in terms of the inconvenience for drivers and commuters within the New Amsterdam area. We have also seen that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure or the contractor is digging out about eight inches of the asphalt and the foundation is a solid foundation and it is also being dug out. I don’t know what they will be replacing it with, but I only hope that what they will be putting will be better than what they are taking out,” he said.
Managing Director of ACS, Peter Lewis, told Guyana Times that he was asked to put one and a half inches of asphalt on the road.
According to him, what he is being asked to do has been changed on three occasions. He said the engineer has, on three occasions, instructed the company to vary from the specifications as stipulated in the contract.
“Firstly it was to remove the top layer of asphalt and replace it with crusher run. Then the company was told that the project has changed and we were to excavate all the asphalt and replace it with sand and loam before the one-and-a-half-inch asphalt (is laid),” Lewis explained.
He said ACS was then told to change again — mill the road and remove all of the asphalt and the 19 inches of foundation which, according to Lewis, is intact.
He is also claiming that the engineer has instructed that whatever is removed from the road be placed on the existing carriageway until the project has been completed.
Now Lewis has said the ACS has been instructed to return to the original design after the solid asphalt and some of the foundation had been removed.
Lewis is claiming that, for the past three weeks, he has been trying to get a revised Bill of Quantity from the engineer. He said the ACS cannot continue to work because the contract will require more material.
Meanwhile, Hussain is blaming the Government for the chaos that is being created in the area.
“As a Regional Councillor, we have not seen the Bill of Quantity. None of the jobs that the Ministry is doing, they are not notifying the region or any NDC [Neighbourhood Democratic Council] or Municipality in this region; so I think this is of great concern, and I am looking forward to Central Government to change their attitude towards awarding and executing contracts in Region Six,” Hussain told this publication.
Meanwhile, Associated Construction Services is calling on the relevant authorities to send an experienced engineer to work in Region Six before more of the roads in the region are destroyed unnecessarily.
At Republic Road, New Amsterdam, a similar situation exists, where the contractor had removed the asphalt from a section of the road and has left it like that. (Andrew Carmichael)