US$192M East Coast road expansion project on track for October deadline

The US$192 million East Coast road expansion project from Sheriff Street to Orange Nassau is progressing steadily and remains on schedule to meet its extended October 31 completion deadline.

To accelerate construction, the contractor, China Railway First Group Co. Limited, has adopted a segmented approach, allowing works to be executed simultaneously across various sections.

However, progress had temporarily stalled, along the Plaisance to Bee Hive stretch, East Coast Demerara, due to homes and businesses obstructing the expanded road alignment.

The Ministry of Public Works has since intervened to have these structures removed or pushed back, with affected residents being relocated.

On Friday, Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill led a site inspection to assess progress and address concerns from affected residents. He was accompanied by engineers and technical staff overseeing the project.

During the visit, Minister Edghill met with the final five residents between Haslington and Victoria who are yet to relocate. He encouraged their continued cooperation to avoid delays to the construction timeline.

“We have gone ahead, there were 108 persons from Enmore to Belfield. Everybody has come in, signed, and settled, except one person. Everyone else has collected their monies based on the consultant’s calculations,” he stated.

Minister Edghill continued, “We are at the last stage now. We are kindly asking everybody to wrap up in the next couple of days and push back. We don’t want to put anybody out of bread, that is why we made sure we made the arrangements but somewhere along the line, government has to do government’s work.”

Based on the latest project report, the physical progress of the expansion stands at 56.5 per cent, while the planned target for this phase was 89.1 percent.

Minister Edghill affirmed that the pace of construction will pick up over the coming weeks.

Once completed, the massive but transformative project is expected to significantly reduce traffic congestion along the busy East Coast corridor, improving travel times and road safety for thousands of commuters.