DoS hoping to have synthetic tracks completed by year-end
This year’s October will mark three years since the launch of a massive project involving the construction of two synthetic track-and-field facilities in Berbice and Linden, and Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, is not eager to wait much longer for the completion of these facilities, as he hopes they would be completed by year end.
Since his recent appointment as Director of Sport, one of the first tasks Steve Ninvalle set himself was to inspect the work at both facilities, which has been ongoing sporadically for more than two years.
In giving to Guyana Times Sport an exclusive update on the progress, Ninvalle shared that the facility at Linden is just about 95% complete, while the one in Berbice is trailing at 75% completion. However, this progress has come with some hurdles.
“We have just written to the contractors. The consultant has just written to the contractors, because of the fact that there seems to be an underlying issue, which is climate that everyone is talking about. The weather, the weather, the weather,” Ninvalle related. He added, “And, quite frankly, I don’t think that this can be one excuse that keeps recurring.”
Coupled with the constraints of the coronavirus pandemic, weather has been cited as a hindrance by contractors.
However, Ninvalle shared that the consultants attached to the project are working assiduously to have his hopes of a year-end finish realised.
As Director of Sport, Ninvalle divulged, “We’re trying to work with the contractors to make sure that, by the end of this year, those two facilities can be completed. But that’s also a work in progress. We do hope that it doesn’t move to the point where we might have to carry people to court and so forth. So, the consultant is working with them, and hopefully, if all things go as we want (them) to go, then we can have those two facilities by year end,”
Ninvalle went on to share.
At its launch under the previous APNU/AFC Coalition Government, the cost of the project was set at some $300M. The facilities are located at Burnham Park in New Amsterdam Berbice and at the Bayrock Community Centre ground at Wismar in Linden.
The contract for the Berbice track had initially been awarded to BK International at a cost of $141 million, while the contract for the Linden track was handed to Builders Hardware and Supplies at a cost of $179 million.