The Sheriff/Mandela Road project has received a two-month extension, Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill said Tuesday. The project, which was scheduled to be completed by December 31 this year, has been extended to February 14, 2022.
The Minister said the extension is a direct result of challenges on the global shipping mechanism brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. He explained that the delay in the completion of the project is beyond the control of the contractor and government.
“Getting ships out of China was one problem. The last problem we had is that when we did get the ship out of China and it reached Panama, it had a problem so they had to move containers from one ship to another to get it down here. That is arriving within a couple of weeks, so we will be able to get some of the other components. Those delays were not manufactured, they are not things people are using as excuses, because in terms of management, we asked to see date of purchase, bill of laden to show things were actually shipped, but they did face the real delays.”
Additionally, Minister Edghill noted that since his last site visit on October 30, access to 84 entrances to smaller roads were completed and executed by the Ministry of Public Works. Further to this, Minister Edghill said for Christmas, Guyanese will have a road to facilitate quicker and easier access.
Meanwhile, the installation of street lights and requisite markings have already commenced.
“What remains to be done are the 325 lights that you just saw the installation is ongoing. That will be moving apace in the next couple of weeks. We have the traffic signals; the poles are here and we are waiting on the arrival of the actual lights. There will be some fine works in terms of the guard rail. The poles for the vertical signs are here and we are waiting on the arrival of the signs,” he said. (Extracted and modified from the Department of Public Information)
