Materials sought for East Berbice Road project

Work on the East Bank Berbice Road Project is expected to begin soon as the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) has opened invitations for the supply of materials.

According to an advertisement in yesterday’s newspapers, the Ministry is inviting sealed bids for five different lots for the supply of: 40,500m3 of white sand, 5,000m3 white sand/sand clay, 7,200m3 crushed gravel aggregate, 120 drums of bitumen CRS-2 and 120 drums of bitumen RC 250, for each of the respective lots.

Bids can be submitted from today and tenders will be opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board on July 4, 2017.

Last week, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson had announced that the long-awaited project will continue and will be done in phases.

According to Patterson, initially when they were in talks with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to fund the project it was estimated to cost some $1.8B. However, he said that after they did not receive the necessary support from the IDB due to many reasons, he took it upon himself to work out a lower cost and pleaded with the Ministry of Finance for funding. The project now costs some $1.2B and is being funded by the Government of Guyana.

He had said that the project will commence at Stanleytown and conclude at Everton Village, covering some 5.5 kilometers of road. However, he said, eventually all the way to Mara Village, will see reconstruction.

The works that will be done include site clearance and earthworks, sub-base and base works, pavement works, minor drainage works, incidental road works, traffic signs and road markings and bridges and box culverts.