Dear Editor,
The cost for the new airport terminal building and runway extension appears to be extremely high. I review the contract for the new airport briefly prepared by the Chinese contractor and from experience as a design and contracts engineer with worldwide experience I find the cost for most items in the Bill of Quantities quite excessive.
The items of work are well detailed in the contract and the Chinese contractor in my opinion has not missed a thing. The total cost amounts to US$138M, which includes as follows:- Preliminaries US$8.3M, Pavement Works for Apron US$10M, Airport Terminal Building US$42M, Civil Buildings US$28M, extension of Runway and Taxiway that includes US$30.5 M for backfilling with sand and US$4.8M for foundation treatment. It should be noted that the latter cost for the runway includes for 1066 metres for the runway extension and not for a new runway. A large quantity of sand is required for backfilling the runway extension.
The government will provide the sand free and any increase in haulage distance for the sand in excess of 12 kilometers would result in an extra to the contractor as well as an extension of time on the contract.
The sand also has to be of good quality, if not the contractor will claim an extra cost to supply the sand as well as for time delay.
From the above it is clear the final cost is unknown and could far exceed the tender sum.
In his business column in Sunday Stabroek of June 30 Mr Ram queried the cost of the toilet bowls for the civil buildings.
It should be noted the cost is a supply and install item in the Bill and not a supply item only.
However, in my opinion the cost is still high and I agree with him. I cannot download the civil drawings on my computer.
I would have liked to review the drawings and topography of the area along with the quantities noted for each section of work, and comment further, especially on the vast quantities of sand required for the airport extension.
Yours faithfully,
M Alli
