While civil works are yet to commence at the site for the construction of a government complex of four towers, all preliminary works have been completed, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill told the National Assembly.
The Minister provided the update in response to questions posed by Opposition Parliamentarians Annette Ferguson and David Patterson when the House convened for a sitting on Thursday.
Edghill reminded that the complex will be built on 20 acres of land in an area in close proximity to the new Eccles/Haags Bosch roundabout. Edghill said the site is already cleared, land filling has begun, soil sampling is complete and equipment is already mobilized on site.
He did not indicate when on-site civil works will commence but maintained that the complex is set for completion within 913 days from the start of the commencement order. That order was reportedly issued at the beginning of this year.
Edghill said the project will soon have a supervisory consultant hired and procurement of materials such as steel frames have commenced. He deemed the project for which monies were first allocated in 2022, to be well advanced.
In 2022, it was first announced that the complex would be built in Kingston Georgetown but by 2023, Edghill said the 12-storey high complexes will be constructed on lands at Houston, Greater Georgetown.
A total of $2.6 billion, approved in the 2022 budget, was paid to the contractor – Caribbean Green Building Inc – to be used as mobilisation advance for the office towers. The total cost for the project is set at some $15.8 billion, some five billion above what the government had projected.
In 2023, another $4 billion was approved and another $1 billion was approved in 2024. Notwithstanding, Edghill said only $2.6 billion has been disbursed to the contractor to date.
The $2.6 billion was to be used on geotechnical studies, designs, supervisory services and advance payment for civil works.
In the same location at Houston, there are plans to also construct a hospital and a hotel among other major edifices and Edghill assured that geotechnical studies were all done
Additionally, Edhill addressed questions of an environmental impact study and said the area which is home to the Haags Bosch landfill site was deemed suited for the massive construction of new hotels and the government towers/complexes to be built on the nearby Eccles to Mandela highway and the Ogle to Haags Bosch road.
