$445M overhaul for Haslington/Grove, Industry/Plaisance roads

Thirty community roads in the Haslington/Grove and Industry/Plaisance Neigh-bourhood Democratic Coun-cils (NDCs), Region 4, are to be rehabilitated soon following the signing of contracts at the various locations on Thursday afternoon.

According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release, the first contract which was signed between NDC officials and Courtney Benn Contract-ing Services Limited, at Golden Grove Primary School, Presi-dent’s College Road, is valued $160M  and will benefit 27,000 residents directly.

The project will see the rehabilitation of 12 roads with the use of double bituminous surface treatment or asphaltic concrete, the rehabilitation of two culverts, six bridges, the provision of safety features such as signage, road markings and speed humps on the identified roads and the cleaning, reshaping and/or realigning of existing roadside drains and the construction of new drains where necessary.

The roads that are to be rehabilitated under the Haslington/Grove NDC are as follows; Golden Grove Housing Scheme access road north, school access road, Golden Grove, President’s College road, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cross streets, Railway Street east and west, and Golden Grove section (c) housing scheme roads.

The second contract signing, the release said, took place at Plaisance Govern-ment School, Plaisance, and saw two contracts with a total value of $286.5M being inked between NDC officials and Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited and Dipcon Engineering Services Limited.

A contract valued $133.7M and which was awarded to Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited will see the rehabilitation of 13 roads within the Industry/Plaisance NDC, specifically roads in the Plaisance and Sparendaam areas with the use of double bituminous surface treatment or asphaltic concrete.

The other contract, which has a value of $152.8M and was awarded to Dipcon Engineering Services Limit-ed, will see the rehabilitation of five roads that fall within the Industry/Plaisance NDC, specifically roads in the Ogle and Industry areas with the use of double bituminous surface treatment of asphaltic concrete. The release stated also that when combined both contracts will see the rehabilitation of 18 roads, the cleaning, reshaping and/or realigning of existing roadside drains and the construction of new drains, the rehabilitation of one bridge and the provision of safety features such as signage, road markings and speed humps on the programme roads.

Present at the signing at both locations were Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Water, Emile McGarell; Deputy Regional Executive Officer Region 4, Ashford Ambedkar; and Project Coordinator CRIP, Karen Roopchand;  along with officials from the NDC offices and Guyana Water Incor-porated.

Minister Ali in his remarks urged residents to get involv-ed in the process by lending their skills, services and time to ensure that the contractors provide quality work.

Over the past few weeks a number of contracts worth hundreds of millions were inked under the Caribbean Development Bank-funded CRIP.