The Central Housing and Planning Authority has developed an environmental social management plan to guide contractors on how to reduce the potential impacts and risks caused by major construction projects.
This was announced at the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee (ICC) meeting on the construction of the four-lane access road from Mandela, Georgetown to Eccles, East Bank Demerara. The meeting was held on Friday at the Regency Suite Hotel in Georgetown.
The environmental social management plan was formulated after an environmental impact assessment was conducted on the project area. Environmental and Social Safeguards Coordinator, Sunil Gopaul explained that the assessment identified a number of potential impacts.
“Our findings suggest that these various environmental and social impacts will be basically short term and localized within the area of construction and what we sought to do was develop some mitigation measures to manage those potential impacts and risks that may come up,” Gopual said.
According to Gopaul, impacts such as construction waste, traffic issues and the use of hazardous materials were identified, and as such, a number of plans to mitigate these impacts were developed.
These plans would be included in the bid document and would also be mandatory for the contractor to implement during the construction phase.
“So, to guide the contractor towards managing and mitigating health and safety impacts during construction phase, we develop these environmental and social management plan in accordance with Guyana’s laws, the project’s preliminary environmental social assessment findings and international best practices,” Gopaul noted.
Additionally, the Ministry of Housing also made it a requirement for the contractor to have a have health and safety officer as part of the team to ensure compliance with health and safety management.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Projects, Intakab Indarjeet, said the road will be 2.8 kilometre in length and 3.5-meter in width. The project will also include the construction of 12 bridges, drains and culverts.
“The works of this project includes land clearing, construction of drains and concrete culverts, concrete bridges and of course the four lane highway with two parking lanes and solar street lighting,” Indarjeet said.
The project was broken into four lots for ease of construction and access; these include Lot 1 which is from Eccles to Agricola, Lot 2 is Agricola alone, Lot 3 was identified as Rome, Lot 4 is Houston South while Lot 5 is Houston North and Lot 6, South Ruimveldt.
Contractors are invited to bid now until February 25, 2021, for the construction. It is expected that works will commence in April after the evaluation and approval of the budget in the National Assembly. The project is slated for completion in November 2021.
The road will provide a link from the access road that is being constructed from the sprawling Diamond Housing scheme to Eccles, which itself has a large housing area and an industrial site.
Stakeholders at the ICC management were given the opportunity to voice concerns and make recommendations on the project at the meeting on Friday.
This included representatives from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Guyana Police Force, Guyana Fire Service and Ministries of Local Government and Regional Development and Public Works among others.
Delivering remarks virtually, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal said linking communities and regions is part of the government’s One Guyana vision.
“In what we do apart from the development of new housing schemes and housing areas, it is also important that we have the necessary infrastructure we need to facilitate and enhance our citizens’ life,” the minister stated.
It was also noted that rigorous monitoring system will be in place once the construction commences.
