Valentine’s Day road: Sheriff-Mandela Road to be completed by Feb 14

The long-awaited Sheriff Street-Mandela Avenue Road Expansion Project, which was supposed to have been completed by November 30, will now be wrapped up in time for Valentine’s Day 2022.
On Tuesday, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill toured the Sheriff-Mandela road project accompanied by Ministry engineers and various contractors. At the Lamaha bridge, where the temporary bypass bridge has to be removed, he explained that the new project deadline is Valentine’s Day next year. However, the project as it stands now is substantially complete.

“As you can see, where we are standing is the only section of the entire project which remains to be paved. And I know your question is, why we didn’t pave it? Well, I can answer that. We moved our assets from continuing to work here, to get the weekend at the DSL turn. And by now, you would have gone out there and realised that we have completed the paving at DSL. Within the next 48 hours, this entire section, 600 metres, is the only part of the road that remains to be paved,” the Minister told the media.
He added that in terms of contract management and the use of terms, that will deem the project to have been substantially completed. “As a result of COVID related delays, all the other works apart from these 600 metres which will be paved within the next 48 hours or so, that everything else; the installation of the lights, the guard rails, the signal, everything, should and must be completed by the 14 February, 2022. Valentine’s Day. So, we’ll be able to say Happy Valentine’s to the people of Guyana.”

Confusion over markings
Addressing the issue of the public’s confusion surrounding the road markings and taking accountability for the confusion as the subject Minister, he assured that a public education campaign will be done.
“Let me begin by apologising that the fact that we have to take time to explain to people now what is actually happening to answer their queries it shows that we should have done something better of which as the Minister responsible I take full responsibility for that and that is we should have mounted public education campaign and I take full responsibility for not doing that.”
“But apart from the road markings accompanying the entire road way will be vertical signs which will be steel poles that will be mounted in the corner of the road and then they’ll have the signs telling the turns, stoppages, pedestrian crossing, no noise zones and all the rest of it will be there,” Edghill explained.
Edghill acknowledged that the project, like most projects, suffered from various teething problems. However, he assured that these are being rectified and also made it clear that contractors Cevons and Road Grip did their work based on an approved design.
“Now like any project there are teething problems and we must admit that we have discovered a few teething problems where the markings were concerned but as the Minister responsible for public works, I would not like to put Cevons and Road Grip out to bleach, to say that they’re incapable of doing their work and all the other comments,” he said.
“I’m just saying is that in the drawings and the designs that were there once we started implementing it and were able to do a review, we saw the need for some changes and those changes have been made and wherever we see the need for changes those will be made.”

Confusing to the untrained eye
Meanwhile, SRKN engineering consultant Krishna Narine assured that while the road markings may be a bit confusing to the untrained eye, this is because they are unfinished.
“I must stress to you that the marking is not finished, so it may be a bit confusing when the marking is halfway – all the arrows are not finished yet…but gradually over the next week or so we will endeavour to complete our markings on the road,” Narine said.
When this publication arrived at the scene, sub-contractor Cunnings Electrical had begun installing street lights. Edghill explained that by the time installation activities reach the DSL turn, some 325 street lights would have been installed.
Questions were also raised about what the final cost of the project would be, since variations had to be made to the contract and the previous works had to be corrected after they deteriorated under the previous Government. Edghill acknowledged that additional sums are likely to be needed, but stressed that this should not be a cause for concern.
The expansion project, which covers approximately seven kilometres of road between Sheriff Street and Mandela Avenue, involves the relocation of utilities; the installation of lane and shoulder improvements; placement of sidewalks and paved shoulders; traffic signals, traffic signs, streetlights, drainage; a pedestrian overhead walkway; culverts, bridges, and a roundabout.
The project was launched in 2018 but faced many setbacks under the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration. Edghill had explained that in August 2020, there was no work being done due to the COVID-19 pandemic and because of non-compliance with environmental standards which resulted in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) being forced to cease disbursements to the project.
The project was eventually restarted in September 2020. (G3)