US$75M contract awarded for upgrades on Good Success to Timehri Road

A contract to the tune of US$75 million was on Thursday awarded to China Road and Bridge Corporation and the Public Works Ministry for the rehabilitation of the Good Success to Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD) road.
The contract was signed between the Permanent Secretary of the Public Works Ministry, Vladim Persaud on behalf of the government, and Bo Zhang on behalf of the company.

The signing took place at the ministry’s headquarters in the presence of Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and other officials.
The major East Bank roadway is being rehabilitated under the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Programme to Support Climate Resilient Road Infrastructure Development.
This entails the upgrade of 23.7 kilometres of road, increased safety features including widening shoulders catering for pedal cyclists and pedestrians and signage, concrete drainage and the installation of LED street lights. China Road and Bridge Corporation will also reconstruct the bridges and culverts, as well as widen the culverts along the road from Good Success to Timehri.
The roadway is expected to be completed within 36 months and the United States-based company, Sheladia Associates Incorporated was awarded the supervisory consultancy to oversee the project.
During his remarks at the simple ceremony, Minister Edghill urged the contractors to immediately get into execution mode as the government wants to execute more road projects in the region this year.
In this regard, Edghill said he also plans to engage the contractor to work through the nights.
“The traffic coming out of region nine, region eight, region seven and region ten depends heavily on this road. As well as all of the traffic at the main international airport, everyone living on Linden- Soesdyke Highway and the population centres along the East Bank corridor…because of the importance of this road I would expect that the contractor from day one, engage the possibility of working at nights or early hours of the morning when we can have less traffic,” Minister Edghill said.
The project is deemed important for the government as it is the first design-built project for Guyana funded by the IDB.
To ease traffic congestion, Edghill said a bypass roadway has already been built through Jimbo Bridge to accommodate traffic during the construction period.
“We have already constructed a bypass route… I would ask that our team immediately put-up signage so that all commuters who are not familiar with the area will be able to follow the signs and start getting accustomed to that route,” the Public Works Minister added.
Further, the Public Works Minister hinted that several community consultations were already conducted for roads across the country.
The Minister, however, did not disclose when works, whether construction or rehabilitation would commence.
“There’s going to be a lot of major things that are happening, we have already gone out for 100 community roads because while we build these big fancy upgraded highways, the community when people get off the road to go home, they must be fixed,” Edghill said.
Also present at the signing were Public Works Ministry’s Chief of Operations Ivan Gaviria, IDB Country Office (Guyana) Dr Francisco Perez, Head of the ministry’s Work Services Group (WSG) Ron Rahaman and a representative from Supervisory firm Sheladia Associates Inc.