2012: A fair year for Public Works   

A GINA Feature- January 4, 2013

The just completed 2012 has been one of mixed results against great anticipation and buoyancy felt at the beginning of the year. But, given the situation in parliament, doubts and delays in making decisions, it could be considered a fair year for the sector, subject Minister Robeson Benn expressed during a press conference today.

He noted that for some of the projects there were unanticipated delays in spite of good weather with respect to the scheduling of projects and the rate at which some projects were being executed.

Despite the challenges, the Ministry intends to continue working with its national partners and will look at ways to optimise efforts “because engineering works are essentially a question of good data, planning and optimising to get the best results, and so work in relation to engineering optimisation with respect to planning, efficiency initiatives and monitoring are issues which we have to pay particular attention to,” Minister Benn emphasised.

Permanent Secretary, Balraj Balram noted that the Ministry’s current programmes comprise three areas; administration, public works and transport. Under administration there was a voted provision of $687.7M with the expenditure being almost 100 percent. Of significant note in this area is a $500M current subvention to the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD).

Public works is the main programme which had a budget of $854M and expenditure of $852M. This programme accommodated the maintenance of roads, sea defence and other infrastructure including traffic lights, highway lighting, barriers on public roads, and maintaining road reserves.

Under transport, the budget was $60.2M of which $59.9M was expended at the end of the year. The overall provision under current expenditure is $1.6B and the expenditure is $1.597B which is approximately 100 percent.

In relation to foreign funding $8.85B was received while national funds amounted to $8.856B, bringing the capital budget to $17.796B of which $14.019B was spent. The Ministry also received $89.6M supplementary for the administration of the Work Services Group (WSG).

Under the capital programme assistance was given to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB), Maritime Administration (MARAD), Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and T&HD.

Sea Defence

This division of the Work Services Group commenced 2012 by completing 17 of the 18 contracts which rolled over from 2011. General Manager of the Works Services Group, Jeffery Vaughn reported that of the 10 projects awarded in 2012, four were completed and the remainder rolled over to 2013.

Of the 28 roll-over and new contracts awarded in 2012, 21 have been completed while 7 are on-going.

Having spent almost its entire $1.4B budget, $205M was assigned by government for maintenance works (which has been disbursed) and under the 9^th European Development Fund (EDF), $1.2B was released, of which $691M was spent.

Vaughn said that 2012 was noted for its continuation of significant investments towards maintaining the sea defence infrastructure throughout the country; however additional funds are still needed to ensure there is effective rehabilitation and maintenance of works to reduce the lengths of structures classified as critical.

The division, of course, had its fair share of challenges as sections of the sea defence infrastructure were affected by spring tides mostly in September that caused the most damage as they resulted in breaches and overtopping of embankments which led to flooding in several districts.

Some of the achievements for 2012 are the establishment of field staff for both roads and bridges and sea defence, new units established in the WSG to complement field work such as the design unit and GIS,  stock piling of materials in all eight sea defence districts, several pieces of equipment (excavators, tractors, etc.) were purchased, upgrading of several intersections in Georgetown (Camp Street, Thomas Lands, Vlissengen Road, Lamaha and Irving Street) and maintenance of verges along main roads.

Roads and Bridges

With regards to the continued development of roads and bridges, the sum of $6.38B was provided in the 2012 national budget for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads. Manager of the Roads and Bridges Department, Ron Rahaman disclosed that at the end of 2012 the sum of $4.61B or 72 percent of the funds allotted to the department was disbursed.

Under the nationally funded roads and bridges projects the sum of $2.91B was approved of which $2.26B was disbursed. These monies catered for the installation of 322 street lights in Regions 2, 4 and 6,  construction of five bridges in Regions 2, 4 and 6 (these are 60 percent complete) and five kilometres (km) of the East Coast road was upgraded at a cost of $2.5B, 60 percent of the new access to these international airport is complete.

Additionally, 107.3km of miscellaneous roads in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were undertaken at a cost of $1.98B, which are 20 percent completed and 10km of urban roads in Regions 2, 4, 6 and 10 done to the tune of $234M.

Regarding hinterland roads, $1.057B was approved and $342M or 32 percent has been disbursed. The funding covered work on 679 km of roads in Regions 1, 8, 9 and 10.

For projects undertaken through international lending agencies such as the IDB and CDB $3.47B was approved of which $2.35B was disbursed. Rehabilitative works were done to the East and West Canje Roads (19.5km) at a cost of US$9.5M and 34km of the Black Bush Polder costing US$6.6M. These projects are practically completed.

Improvements were done on 3.5km of the access road to the CJIA costing US$1.62M. Regarding the four lane expansion on the East Bank 32 percent was completed in 2012 at a cost of US$17.3M, while works are 50 percent completed on 11km of remedial roads which cost US$2.15M and works on 9 bridges and 11 culverts are 20 percent completed.

Rahaman pointed out that in 2013 attention will be focused on completing a study for the feasibility and design for work on Sheriff street and Mandela Avenue, new Demerara Harbour Bridge and East Bank Demerara road from Grove to Timehri, construction of the West Coast Demerara public road, complete feasibility, design and construction of East Bank Berbice road and database for traffic counts and accidents data.

MARAD

Claudette Rogers, Director General of MARAD has recognised that 2012  had issues to confront,  one being the six deaths of the persons from the Pomeroon, nevertheless the department had full achievements some of which include the acquisition of the pilot launch, the ML Cacabelly, training of marine cadets to become marine pilots and inspectors,  docking of vessels, continuous ISPS inspection of port facilities,  provision of pilot training and flag and port inspections of registered and licenced ships.

“Unfortunately we have had more accidents and incidents in 2012 than 2011 and you may want to ask me exactly what plans we have because one of the things we have recognised that accidents don’t happen they are caused…they are a cause of human error,” stated Rogers.

It has been found that a lot of the boat operators and their vessels are uncertified. As such in 2013, MARAD intends to have more awareness seminars to sensitise operators on safety on the waterways.

The number of ships piloted, as of November 30, 2012, from Georgetown are 715 and 83 from Berbice. The ships piloted were tankers, cargo ships and containers, among others. For 2012, the cargo imported by the piloted vessels was 435, 8040 metric tonnes while the cargo exported was 2,172,789 metric tonnes.

Rogers pointed out some of the projections for 2013 will see MARAD repairing its dredge, improving its hydrographic capabilities, and continuing inspections of sea vessels and intensifying training and awareness campaigns for all users and operators of the water ways.

Transport and Harbours

The T&HD was able to dock four of its vessels namely the MV Kimbia, Sandaka, Bonasika and MV Barima. The Bonasika had to be docked in order to replace the Sandaka in the Berbice River, and whilst that was being done, the Bonasika would have been operating as the Sandaka.

The two new roll-on roll-off ferries acquired from the Chinese were put into service. The MV Kanawan began working in September and the MV Sabanto in November, both of which are operating the Parika- Supenaam service simultaneously.

General Manager of the T&HD, Marclene Merchant noted that in terms of finance, the department received a $500M subsidy from the Ministry of Finance to assist with outstanding liabilities and to cover payments for fuels.

“The department was able to garner about $1.5B in revenue for which 45% came from the traffic section,” she highlighted. However, the anticipated revenue is not being collected and that is because the department depends solely on the Essequibo river service, hence the need for assistance from the Government.

Overall highlights for 2012 include completion of the revetment at Kumaka, Region 1, installation of a scale at Supenaam, Region 2, and security cameras at the Parika and Supenaam stellings, completion of the roll-on roll-off facilities for the ferries and minor repairs and maintenance to the vessels, stellings and buildings.

Merchant outlined the plans for 2013 which include the docking of the MV Makouria which operates the Bartica service and the MV Malali which plies the Parika/Wakenaam service. Plans are also in place for the rehabilitation of some of the stellings including Bartica, Parika, Georgetown, Kumaka, New Amsterdam, Rosignol and a section of the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling.

Demerara Harbour Bridge

The year 2012 was a mixed year for the DHB, nevertheless improvements were seen in the functioning and operation of the bridge and increases in vehicular traffic.  “In terms of vehicles, we have seen a 6.5% increase in vehicle traversing the bridge and this does not take into consideration those three days that the bridge was out,  July 23, 24 and 25… if we factor that we will see approximately over 7% and that is keeping with the trend over the years,” Adams indicated.

Over the three days that the bridge was out of operations, over $3M in revenue was lost.

“We’ve seen overall a 7.5% increase in our revenue that is from revenue that is taken out from contracted works in the Ministry. As you know the Demerara Habour Bridge does contracted work to maintain the aqua panel bridges,” stated General Manager, Rawlston Adams. The operation of the bridge was supported by a $270M capital subvention; 99 percent of which was expended.

Work done on the bridge include fabrication of buoys, servicing of pontoons, rehabilitation of cluster piles for the retractor span, and supply of wire ropes.

With regards to marine transmit compared to 2011, in 2012 there was a 5.8% increase in vessels transmitting the retractor span.

Components replaced in terms of the maintenance include ropes, connecting posts (38), buoys (21), deck plate (466) and two hydraulic ramps at the retractor spans were replaced.

Plans for 2013 will see the management and staff of the DHB fabricating four extra large pontoons, two of which will be used for bridge maintenance.

CJIA, Civil Aviation

Chief Executive Officer of the CJIA, Ramesh Ghir announced that the airport’s income for 2012 amounted to $1,094M as compared to $748M collected in 2011. The increase was as a result of additional rental/concession fees and passenger service charges.

Of the income collected, $424M was transferred to the Consolidated Fund, 33% more than the $319M that was transferred in 2011, while expenditure amounted to $462M as compared to the $365M spent in 2011.

With regards to passenger arrivals, there was an increase of 13% for 2012. The Immigration Division processed 267,652 passengers for 2012, as compared to the 236,344 in 2011.  Total Passenger Movements for 2012 amounted to 543,435 or 15% more than that of 2011.

With regards to the Airport Expansion Project, work on the Preliminary Designs commenced, and actual construction is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2013. The contract period is 32 months.

The Management of the CJIA also provided training opportunities for its staff in areas such as customer service, and senior manager.

In relation to airline services, Caribbean Airlines launched a direct service, BW527, from JFK to CJIA and a direct service to Toronto, Canada was also added. These direct flights are being operated using the Boeing 767-300 aircraft. Suriname Airways commenced a roundtrip service on the Paramaribo-Georgetown-Miami route twice weekly with its 126- seat B737-300 aircraft. LIAT continued to provide daily service on the Barbados- Georgetown route using the Dash 8 aircraft.

Delta maintained its four times weekly service to New York with the Boeing 757 aircraft.  To cater for the increased traffic during the peak Christmas season, Delta increased its frequency to daily flights.

During the year, the airport lost the services of two Airlines due to economic reasons –REDjet and EZjet Airlines.

Ghir highlighted that some of the goals for 2013 will be to commence the construction of the airport expansion project, conduct a full scale emergency exercise, revise the airport emergency plan and airport security programme, and  increase the security complement beyond 70.

With regards to Civil Aviation, the authority, in the past year, has been able to successfully install all navigational and communication equipment, while government also provided funding which was used to procure high frequency communication and security equipment for the control tower.

In 2012 government also approved private operators to operate helicopters since several in the mining industry are trying to acquire helicopters. Air Services is the first to offer that commercial service.

For 2013 equipment to be used for tracking air craft will be procured, and equipment is also being sourced to facilitate communication with air traffic controllers along the flight routes. These will be installed this year.

Fibre optic cable, Amaila Access Road project 

Technical Advisor to the Minister, Walter Willis noted that one of the projects he was engaged in is the completion of the construction of the roll-on roll-off facility and the walkways and additional stern and mooring dolphins for the T&HD.

The major contractor for the roll-on roll-off stellings was BK International and a sub-contractor was Dynamic Engineering. The contract value was $377.9M and accounts to date are $317.2M.

With respect to the Amaila Falls Access Road, the Ministry had to terminate the contract to Synergy Holdings earlier in the year and a decision was taken to divide sections of the road to have simultaneous contractors working on various lots. These include the Ministry of Public Works (section 2), Toolsie Persaud Quarries Inc. (sections 3 and 4), Ivor Alleyne (section 5), G Bovell Construction Inc. (section 6), and H.N. Pasha (section 7). At this point in time the overall progress of the road is 67% and when the contract with Synergy Holders was terminated it was 33%. Roads are expected to be completed by April 2013. The progress was also affected by the closure of the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge during the protest in Linden over an electricity tariff hike.

Willis was also involved in the design and supervision of the construction for five repeater stations for the fibre optic cable for the e-government project. The stations which are located at Lethem, Annai, Kurupukari, Mabura and Linden were completed last September. Bids were also sent out for the electrical installation of the stations and this was won by Cummings Electrical. Work is on-going on this aspect.