China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. has been approved to construct the much anticipated four-lane bridge across the Demerara River at a cost of $53.5B (US$256.6 million). The Government in a statement on Monday night said the company was the lowest among all bidders who submitted bids for the contract.
According to the statement, Cabinet granted its no-objection for the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) to engage the company to construct the New Demerara Harbour Bridge (NDHB) based on a Design-Build-Finance (DBF) model with financial terms and conditions which would be no less favorable than those submitted in the preferred bidder’s price proposals.
Initially, nine firms were prequalified for the four-lane hybrid Cable-Stayed center span bridge with Concrete Box/T Beam Girder approach bridge structure. The contract includes bridge collision protection, navigation span to accommodate Handymax vessel Navigation aids, lighting, signage, and all other ancillary works. It also includes access road with a minimum of 50 meters up to abutments along with toll collection buildings and ancillary buildings on the West Bank of the Demerara River.
The new bridge is expected to dramatically reduce the inconvenience caused to persons living on the West side. Further, it will offer easy connectivity to both the existing East Bank Demerara road as well as the new Diamond to Ogle bypass on the eastern side of the River and to the existing West Bank Demerara Road and the new Parika to Schoonord Road on the western side of the River.