Public Works Ministry urges caution along ECD corridor as widening project commences

The widening of the East Coast Demerara (ECD) road has commenced and as such, the Public Works Ministry has urged road users to exercise caution when using the roadway.
The project spans construction to improve the road network from Belfield to Mahaica and Sheriff Street to Orange Nassau on the Railway Embankment.
Presently, works have started at Good Hope for drainage and road widening. At Nutenzuil to Clonbrook, pipe works and other road widening is being undertaken. Meanwhile, preparation for the surcharge is ongoing at Turkeyen. The project is being executed by China Railway First Group Company Limited.
“Pedestrians and motorists are asked to exercise caution and observe all directional and safety signs while traversing these areas,” the Ministry cautioned.
In October 2022, the contract for the expansion project was signed to the tune of US$184 million.
The project is two-pronged: the completion of phase two of the East Coast Demerara Road widening and improvement project from Annandale to Mahaica; and the construction of a four-lane road along the railway embankment corridor from Sheriff Street to Orange Nassau.
China Railway First Group Company Limited, is also no stranger to Guyana, having been in talks with the Government for some time on the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP), to construct it in a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) arrangement.
There is another contract, the redesign, and widening of the road from Belfield, ECD, to Rosignol, West Coast Berbice (WCB). The Belfield to Rosignol road widening was intended to be a continuation of the East Coast Road Widening and Expansion Project, which was commissioned in 2020. The US$50.2 million project was supposed to have two components: a four-lane expansion from Better Hope to Annandale, and an upgrade to the existing two-lane road from Annandale to Belfield.
Earlier last year, Government had even mulled the extension of the four-lane road from Sheriff Street to Buxton and beyond.
At the time, a US$106 million contract had been signed between the Public Works Ministry and India-based Ashoka Buildcon Limited, for the construction of a four-lane bypass road to link the East Coast of Demerara corridor at Ogle directly to the East Bank Demerara corridor at Eccles.
As Government continues on its agenda to transform the infrastructural landscape of the country, soon the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara will be merged as one city through the impressive road networks and highways being created.