Road to Amaila Falls hydropower site nearly done

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:00 by GxMedia

The Amaila Falls Access road is on track to meet a March 2014 deadline, as it has reached a completion rate of 80 percent, 50 of which was done in 2013, Engineer attached to the Ministry of Public Works, Walter Willis told the media.

At the Ministry’s press conference today, to review its performance in 2013, Willis gave the completion rates for the various sections as:  Section 2A-89 percent; Section 2B-32 percent; Section 3-73 percent, Section 4-99 percent, Section 5-98 percent, Section 6 – 55 percent and Section 7 (the longest )- 74 percent, Willis said.

He said that what remains now to be completed on the road is placing a total of 120 kilometres of laterite on all the sections, an aspect of the construction that is very dependent on the weather.

There is also 2.5km in Section 2, (close to the Essequibo River, in the swampy section) which is being worked on at present. Other outstanding work relating to the road is the incomplete construction of several bridges across the creeks.

 He said there are outstanding crossings at Kuribrong and Butukari.

The bridges that remain to be done are; in Section 2- two of green heart, in Section 6- one greenheart that at the end of December, 2013 was 50 percent completed, and in Section 7, one steel bridge. Work on the bridges is expected to be completed in March 2014, he said.

The current contractor on the roadway is China Railway in Section 7, Mekdeci Machinery and Construction (MMC) in Section 2, Toolsie Persaud Quarries in Sections 3 and 4, Ivor Allen-Section 5, and Ivor Allen, and Dwarka Nauth Construction in Section 6.

The Kuirbrong bridge crossing is a separate contract from the roadway. Thus far, the design for this crossing has been completed by Dynamic Engineering, but funding has to be approved by the National Assembly, in order to move this aspect of the project forward.

Consideration is now on whether to have a fixed bridge or a pontoon crossing, while the annual maintenance manual is being compiled by consultant SRKN Engineering.