…land clearing, sand filling to be completed this month
President Dr Irfaan Ali has been assured that efforts are afoot to fasttrack the ongoing works preliminary works on the Ogle to Eccles Bypass Road project that will link the East Coast of Demerara to the East Bank of Demerara.
The Head of State on Tuesday visited the construction site at the Ogle end to check on the progress of the works on the much-anticipated bypass road project, which will run 7.8 kilometres through the swampy backlands to create a direct highway connecting the East Coast with the East Bank corridor.
President Dr Irfaan Ali being updated on the preliminary works by MPW’s Technical Services Manager Nigel Erskine during at visit to the construction site of the ECD-EBD Road Link Project
“You can have an appreciation for the type of work and the effort that goes behind bring these developments to reality… We have a number of difficulties in construction of these roads. Not only are we below sea level but we have a high water table in some areas. Our drainage system in the backlands – and most of the developments are coming in the backlands – is far different. So, all of that has to be taken into consideration,” the president pointed out.
Currently, some 6.5 kilometres of land clearing and sand-filling works have been completed at both the Ogle and Eccles ends. President Ali was told that the entire 7.8 km main alignment will be completely sand-filled by the end of the month.
The contractor, India-based Ashoka Buildcon Limited, is using a special technology for compaction during the sand-filling process called PVDs (Prefabricated Vertical Drains), which is a durable plastic core wrapped around a geotextile filter fabric to facilitate the movement of water through slow-draining soils. This fabric will help to accelerate the primary settlement of the soil.
Technical Services Manager at the Public Works Ministry, Nigel Erskine, who was updating the Head of State on the project, explained there is a 180-day period for the compaction to settle and afterwards, the construction of the asphaltic road will start.
Meanwhile, the concrete drains that will run alongside the road will be built by two local sub-contractors, Jagmohan Construction and John Fernandes. Erskine noted that all the testing were done and the sub-contractors will commence works on the pre-fab concrete drains soon.
They will also be producing the beams and the piles for the concrete bridges along the bypass road. There are 48 small bridges in total along the main alignment and one major bridge across the Lamaha Canal.
Last month, Public Works Minister Juan Edghil had told the Guyana Times that they have encountered a snag with the project regarding its design.
At the time when the project was conceptualised and designed, there was a roundabout at the intersection with the Railway and Embankment, which is currently two-lane road. However, with the Guyana Government now upgrading the Railway and Embankment now into a four-lane, the roundabout has to be redesigned.
When the US$106 million contract was signed between the Guyana Government and Ashoka in June 2022, the contractor had reassured of delivering the project within the stipulated 24-month timeline.
According to Erskine, efforts are being made to meet the October 2024 deadline. This was in response to President Ali enquiring whether the contractor is on schedule.
“They are a little behind schedule but they have ramped up work and I think we will be able to complete this project in time… They’re working up to 10 o’clock in the night from both [Eccles and Ogle] ends,” the Technical Services Manager informed the Head of State.
Erskine further posited that, “…it’s a significant development and we are going to be pushing the contractor to have this project delivered on time and within the cost of [the] budget.”
Back in 2015, the Indian Government had provided the US$50 million credit line for the road link that was initially slated for Ogle to Diamond, EBD. However, the project cost was driven up to over $208 million by the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government and the project languished under them.
However, when the current People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration took office in 2020, it redesigned the project into two phases to fit the LOC – first from Ogle to Haags Bosch road in Eccles, which is about 48-50 per cent of the project, and then from Eccles to Diamond.
The Guyana Government will be undertaking the extension from Diamond all the way to Timehri where the country’s main port of entry, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), is located.
It was announced in January 2022 that Ashoka Buildcon Limited won the contract to construct the road, ahead of two other Indian companies. Ashoka has built a number of bridges and roads.
RITES Limited, also out of India, secured the US$3.2 million contract for the provision of supervisory services for this bypass project. Since the road construction is being financed by the EXIM Bank of India, it is a condition that companies from that country execute the various types of works, with assistance/support from local firms.
RITES, an engineering consultancy company, had conducted a 10-month design consultancy, which produced a Detailed Project Report (DPR) outlining the draft final design of the bypass road and recommended a four-lane highway as most feasible.
This project will see the construction of some 7.8 kilometres of road from the East Coast to the East Bank with each of the four lanes being 3.6 metre wide. The Highway will also feature a median in the middle and sidewalks as well as several connector roads especially at the East Bank end to allow for further diversion of traffic.
