Commuting will soon be stress-free for residents on the East Bank of Berbice (EBB), as the $1.2B road rehabilitation project finally advances. The exercise, which commenced in August 2017 was delayed due to the obligatory removal of utilities; however, it is now back on stream.
Resident Engineer, Joel Tucker told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that works are ongoing in the Everton area which has fewer encumbrances.
The Overwinning area being prepared for rehabilitation
He explained that the workers are currently widening the area which also involves full reconstruction. “Then we’ll add on our base course and we should be on target to do the asphalt layer or the paving, sometime early in February and this will be roughly about 1.3 kilometres of work of the 5km.”
Tucker highlighted that the work officially began on December 04, 2017, when the ministry received its first consignment of white sand.
The project will see the construction of five kilometres of roadway from Overwinning to Everton, equipped with new features aimed at bolstering road safety.
“We’ll have the installation of highway lighting coming from Stanleytown in New Amsterdam right through to Everton, installation of guard rails; improvement in terms of traffic signage, and also the horizontal road signage as well,” Tucker underlined.
According to the Resident Engineer, the project will also see four structures rehabilitated and completely reconstructed. These are the bridges at Gay Park and Edinburg Bridge, a culvert between Edinburg and Gay Park and a culvert at the Baptiste turn.
This multi-million-dollar venture is being executed by the Ministry’s Special Project Unit utilising its own equipment and employing persons from the EBB area. Contracts for the bridges and lighting were awarded to Yunas Civil and Building Construction Services and Cummings Electrical Company Limited respectively. The scheduled deadline for completion of the project is August 3.
