Gov’t will only accept high quality work

-Min. Edghill on Sheriff/Mandela expansion project-

Public Works Minister, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill has said Government will only give its approval for high quality works from the ongoing Sheriff-Mandela road expansion project.

While he is satisfied with some of the outcomes to date, Minister Edghill maintained that the process needs to be accelerated since it is way behind schedule.

The Minister highlighted concerns about the delays and inconveniences residents and businesses are faced with due to the unfinished work.

“While we do infrastructural development and maintained economic activity, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our people is paramount importance … we have a very competent project engineer on-site and the supervisory consultant. I am continuing to engage them,” he said

The project now has six sub-contractors; five of whom are Guyanese. The last is a Trinidadian company focusing mainly on drainage works.

Minister Edghill said milling and installation of the first trial of 300 square metres of asphalt should have already commenced and this will allow for the paving of the thoroughfares to begin shortly.

“Because it’s a seven-kilometre stretch of work, there is still room for more human resources. Both in terms of the Chinese experts as well as local sub-contractors to get some work done,” the Public Works Minister added.   

Moving ahead, he said there would be a revised date of completion after a full assessment of the project is done. He hopes to arrive at a reasonable timeline.

“We have lost some months because of COVID-19. We have to take that into consideration. They were unable to get some of their experts who went home to China. We are going to have another in house meeting,” the Minister said.

There are ongoing works at several sites en route to the ending point. The project begins at the junction of Sheriff Street and Rupert Craig Highway and finishes at DSL junction, Ruimveldt Industrial Estate.