Ask any person who lives in the lower third of the country - and they'll tell you that ever since The Kendall Bridge washed away in the wee hours of June second 2008, their lives have been riddled with uncertainty and inconvenience.
Well, tonight the good news is that the end of these troubles is in sight; the bad news is that it will be another two years or so before the end is actually at hand.
That was confirmed when the media was invited today for the opening of the tenders for the bridge. The tendering process was opened some time ago buy the physical tender documents were opened today and 7news was in Belmopan at the NEMO conference room for it.
Jules Vasquez, Reporting
The Kendall Bridge was wrecked by mighty, epochal floods on the Sittee River twenty six months ago - and finally the tenders are in:
Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Minister of Works
"We have been waiting for this time a long time."
It's the kind of thing, you don't see everyday Edgar Puga from the Ministry Of Works Execution Unit is not opening a present - he's opening a tender - this one for the Kendall bridge - from a consortium, Kier/Kee Chanona. It is a folder full of technical information, costing and schedules, but the most important figure is the bottom line; how much will it cost. In this case, Kier/Kee Chanona say they can build it for $16,085,627.02.
And then there's the temporary diversion which they can build for another $495,644.99.
After they initialed off on that - it was unto the next one. With the media and representatives of both companies watching, Puga then opened the submission from Cisco construction - wrapped in the same brown paper, this one was for just about 5 million dollars less, $11,899,079.35.
And even though Cisco is more than 33% less then Kier/Kee Chanona, this race is not always to the least costly:
Jules Vasquez
"With such a significant disparity in the pricing that there is a significant advantage with one proposal over the other."
Cadet Henderson, CEO Ministry of Works
"No, we never said so. We had cases where a million dollars contract had a $900,000.00 error. So 80% - 90% of the cases there inherent errors, both arithmetic and other assumptions and so a thorough review is done, it's very systematic it's an international methodology that is used by the bank. Whoever is selected as the most responsive bidder is not necessarily the cheapest but the most responsive and of course the economics of the submission is a heavy weighting but it's a complex process of weighing all the advantages and the important criteria of both the technical and the economic valuation that is done."
Now it goes unto a tender evaluation committee:
Cadet Henderson, CEO Ministry of Works
"Basically we are committed to make a local recommendation with the combined input from our team, we invite the economics ministry to participate, our chief engineer and others and it's a collective process where many individuals get together to come up with this final consensus."
The successful tender should be approved within four weeks of today. But that's the bureaucracy - residents of the lower third of the country want to know when, when will they have this bridge
Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Minister of Works
"We think that between October, November the latest providing that the weather hold up we should have physically begin the work. I think it would be about a year and a half to two years. All these projects should be ready by the next general elections."
Right in time for the 2013 general elections. And while that's what's important to this minister - what's important to residents is whether this artist's rendering will be worth the wait:
Cadet Henderson, CEO Ministry of Works
"This particular bridge is about 12 feet above the previous bridge and it has no structural support that is in the water way. It just has two support from the ends and its spans entirely across the river. It's a major steel thrust like the mid-span of haul over bridge. It a very significant structure that is well rank for that kind of span. The support system we have is behind the existing abutments, we even have deadmen extra tie backs so we are confident that the bridge is appropriate and should be there for many decades to come."
The Kendall Bridge will be built with a loan from the CDB, which is on concessionary terms with a 15 year grace period. Government will provide 10% counterpart funding.
It is of note that three companies prequalified, but at closing time for the submission of bids at 10:00 this morning, only Kier/Kee Chanona and Cisco made submissions. The other company was a Canadian group called Belvedere.
In other news, the ministry has received grant funding from the European Union for the paving of the road from Orange Walk To San Estevan To Progresso. That was awarded to a a Jamaican company called Surrey Aggregates.
The European Union will also fund the road from Orange Walk To San Lazaro To Bella Vista which has been awarded to the Bella Vista Group, while the road from Patachakan To Xaibe has been awarded to Triple B.
