Despite heavy rainfall, works on the West Demerara road expansion project is moving apace with almost 70 per cent of the project completed.
This is according to the Public Infrastructure Ministry Permanent Secretary, Geoffrey Vaughn.
“There is still some amount of slow truancy of the project in terms of progress and the reasons for that, at this time, is the rainfall. We also having some utility [poles relocation] issues and issues with vendors from Vreed-en-Hoop [Stelling Road],” Vaughn said during a recent interview.
A section of the West Demerara Road
However, efforts are being made to have those issues addressed.
The $8.4 billion (US$42 million) project was commissioned in 2015, and scheduled to be completed in the latter part of 2018; however, if the bad weather continued, that deadline may not be met. Works are being carried out by BK Engineering and a Jamaican engineering company, Surrey Paving and Aggregate.
The work entails the improvement of approximately 30.7 kilometres of the West Coast Demerara Road from Vreed-en-Hoop to Hydronie, East Bank Essequibo just about one mile east of Parika. The project is funded by a loan agreement between the Government of Guyana and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
When completed, the roadway will facilitate increased efficiency and safety. Ongoing works include the rehabilitation of pavements, road widening and provision of additional highway lights and replacement of the Groenveldt Bridge.
Other roads
Meanwhile, the residents of Parfaite Harmonie Housing Scheme renewed their calls for the authorities to provide some relief as it relates to the deplorable state of the road network in the area. Several calls have been made, but they have all been ignored.
A resident, Bibi Ally, told Guyana Times that the condition of the road network continued to worsen owing to heavy rainfall and the passage of heavy-duty vehicles.
“They have the big sand truck coming through here and just breaking up the road, and we does try to patch it up, but the hole get too big now, so we just here suffering,” she said.
The residents are complaining that taxi drivers are refusing to traverse the badly affected areas and they are also being deprived of certain goods. “We have a man that does sell goods (groceries) on a truck and you see how this place bad, he does stop at the road head and we does have to go till there to get the goods,” another resident who only identified herself as Tricia said.
The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), in its 2017 budget, allocated funds for the development of road networks for a number of settlements. However, the Parfaite Harmonie Housing Scheme roads were not among those.
