Herstelling community road construction behind schedule

- Gov’t may terminate $38M contract

Chung Global Construction has failed to complete constructing community roads in Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, by the extended deadline of August 15, 2014.

Deplorable: One of the incomplete streets in Herstelling

The Public Works Ministry is now contemplating whether to grant another extension or terminate the contract.
This was confirmed by Joel Tucker, Engineer of the Public Works Ministry during a brief interview with this publication.
According to Tucker, the $38M contract was awarded to Chung Global Construction in December 2012, and should have been completed in six months.
However, after construction of the roads (First, Second, and Third Streets) had begun it was realized that the designs needed adjustments.
As such, works were stalled for a short while to allow changes to the designs. This resulted in the scope of works also being changed so that the project would remain within budget. The new changes included installing of drains and surfacing the structure with Double Bitumen Surface Treatment rather than asphalted concrete.
Tucker related that the project is ongoing and the contractor has scraped the roads and placed crusher-run on the surfaces. He observed that during his last visit to the area about two weeks ago the contractor was not executing any works on the project.
Residents claim that the workers have only been in the area about four times since 2012. This publication was told that the workers only removed surface material from the road. This, coupled with poor weather conditions has reportedly led to the deterioration of the roadway.