$19 million dollars: that's the cost of the 3rd phase of the George Price Highway rehabilitation project - that's the road from Blackman Eddy to the Santa Elena round about. The Ministry of Works team signed the contract today and the CEO discussed this latest phase as well as the entire project.
Errol Gentle, CEO, Ministry of Works
"What we just witnessed was the signing of the contract for section 3 of the rehabilitation of the George Price Highway but to understand the entire project you would have to first let me mention that you have 3 sections, one is the construction and replacement of the roaring creek bridge, that contract was awarded to M and M's construction, section two is from roaring creek bridge to Blackman Eddy and that is ongoing. When you pass along that you can see the excellent work is being done and delayed because of the weather that contract was signed with Teichrob and sons And what we just witnessed was the contract for the rehabilitation of the highway from Blackman Eddy to the Santa Elena round about. We will be doing the upgrade of the highway changing both the vertical and horizontal alignment, the widening of the road, the drainage, safety barriers, marking of the center lines, the edge line and very importantly a lot of drainage work, everything has to do with climate change so our infrastructure if it is to last the test of time it has to be climate resilient, one might ask why the projects are so expensive it is simply because we are building the highway to last 25, 50 years but we are building climate resilient as well as safety standards."
Courtney Weatherburne:
"When will works start for this 3rd phase?"
Errol Gentle
"Usually the contractor has 30 days of signing of contract to mobilize and start working. I am sure the contractor will make use of the dry season and he can start within the 30 days so it up to the contractor to see when he will start."
Courtney Weatherburne:
"So as soon as that starts it is going to be 3 sections of a project ongoing, so let's go back to the first phase how long will that bridge take, people are anticipating the completion of that bridge."
Errol Gentle
"The bridge is well underway and some of the works that are being done behind the scenes you don't see because the contractor is doing a lot of the building of the beams and that sort of stuff for the bridge at his warehouse in Ladyville and those will be moved to the bridge site so that is underway and we should see before the end of the year that bridge being complete as well as section two that is being done by Teichrob and sons."
The 3rd phase is expected to be completed in about 18 months.
