Floating bridge for Berbice
Xavier to woo IDB
Stabroek News
May 7, 2004
A bridge across the Berbice River was determined to be economically feasible by consultants and the government has begun planning the construction of a floating bridge to reduce the financial burden of the project, Public Works Minister, Anthony Xavier says.
The new plan is to have a US$35M floating bridge constructed from D'Edward Village (three miles from Rosignol), linking Crab Island opposite the mouth of the Canje River, to the Corentyne Highway near Canje.
Xavier says the preliminary report by the French consultants proved the bridge project to be "very viable" and the final report is expected this week.
The government is hoping to convince the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) of the viability of the project so as to secure the US$11M available under the current Timehri-Rosignol Bridges project for the Berbice crossing. Stabroek Business has been told the IDB is more in favour of funding two new stellings and two more ferries for that crossing, given earlier studies which found a bridge over the Berbice River to be uneconomical.
"Yes, it has been found to be economically feasible and I am hoping to get a no-objection from the IDB to move ahead," Xavier said. Asked why this report would be believed when earlier ones had different projections, the minister said the scope of the report is much wider.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has mandated Xavier to move ahead with the project and the latter says he is hoping to go to international tender for contractors for the project as soon as possible. An upbeat Xavier says he hopes that after a tender process of three months, negotiations can be concluded for construction to start on this bridge by January, to last 14 months.
A bridge across the Berbice River has been on the cards for almost the entire life of this administration. It was placed on the front burner and then relegated to the back, before being brought back to the front as a campaign promise. It is still to come to fruition. However, Xavier is not daunted by this reality.
He says the project will get off the ground this time, is linked to the development of Crab Island and also has the potential of linking the Guianas.
Xavier says the government will look at local financing for the project and this newspaper was told that again the National Insurance Scheme and pension funds including the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund would be targeted, as well as other institutional investors. The government is also currently hoping that pension funds and the NIS would invest in the power company.
Xavier says the Work Services Group in his ministry led by Rickford Lowe, a former manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, will execute the project and asserts that the floating bridge would not be like the one across the Demerara River. He says that bridge's technology is 34 years old and more modern technology would be applied to the Berbice crossing which should have a maintenance free life initially of 30 years.
Xavier could not readily say what the traffic analysis shows, or the anticipated cash flows but promises to make the final report available once it is official.
Last December, a foreign company presented a plan to the government to construct a floating bridge across the Berbice River and just before then, Xavier had asked DYWIDAG, the contractor for the current bridges project to put forward a proposal to bridge the river.
In 2000, six companies had bid for the construction of a high-span bridge across the Berbice river and Ballast Nedam International had been selected as the preferred bidder. But negotiations dragged and eventually the firm walked from the deal because of its own internal difficulties. Negotiations then commenced with a South African consortium comprising Group 5 and others, but have been stuck at that stage since early 2003. Since then, there has been no movement on the project as the government awaited the findings of the feasibility study.