He was at the time speaking at a stakeholders’ consultation on the new East Bank Berbice Main Access Road on Wednesday. The meeting was held at the Edinburgh Primary School.
The money will come from Central Government, and will be used to maintain the road between July and October of this year when it is expected that the bigger project would come on stream. The interim contract has not yet been awarded and will not be until after a public tender is held.
Clark said that the money is intended for the maintenance of the road up to the time that the larger project would commence. However, he could not say what sections of the road would be repaired with the $60 million.
The last maintenance contract, which totalled in excess of $35 million, was for work to be done repeatedly at the Glasgow-Everton area. “Because at that time, that was the critical area; there was a lot of depressions there. We sat down with some of the residents, because it was a small budget and we wanted to know where we could have spent that money and have some impact and that was chosen, so more than likely it would be a similar [situation] where we consult with the residents and let them decide.”
Disqualification
During the consultation which was attended by hundreds, stakeholders gave their views on some of the issues that should be taken into consideration before designing a new East Bank Berbice Road.
After the announcement was made, stakeholders including East Bank Berbice residents, vehicle operators, the East Bank Berbice Hire Car Association and persons who have businesses along the East Bank of Berbice expressed concern over the possibility of the interim contract being awarded to H Nauth & Sons Civil Engineering Contractors.
They asked for the company to be disqualified as a bidder. H Nauth & Sons Civil Engineering Contractors had been awarded a contract to maintain the road as measures had been put in place to make the road useable, as efforts had been made to construct a new East Bank Berbice Road.
The construction company had issued a statement to the Public Works Ministry earlier this year that it was a waste of money to continue repairing and trying to maintain the road, because it was beyond repair and accepting another such contract would not do well for the image of the company. (Guyana Times)
