The construction of the new Schoonord to Crane four-lane highway is set to be completed by June, significantly alleviating traffic congestion for thousands of commuters on the West Bank and West Coast of Demerara.
This overall project, which is being executed to the tune of about $15.1 billion, is about 70 per cent complete.
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, made the disclosure during an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Wednesday last.
“The level of traffic that is affected between that bottleneck coming all the way from Crane or even Vreed-en-Hoop coming to the bridge…will be significantly reduced…That is a lot of time that it takes up in terms of traffic flow. So, we are envisaging a mid-year completion,” he stressed.
The project is divided into 12 lots. It will feature an emergency lane, 4.1 kilometres of dual-carriageway road, rehabilitation of 2.4 kilometres of roads, medians, two roundabouts, 11 reinforced concrete culverts, and 36 pre-stressed bridges.
“Most of the lots have progressed well. It is only one lot that is behind time. And we [implemented] mechanisms to bring that up and to have both night and day work being done. Overall, for that four-lane, [we are] close to 70 per cent complete…Taking into consideration, we still have the roundabout to be completed…” the minister noted.
In fact, he emphasised that one of the lots has already been completed. Additionally, the completion rates for some of the other lots fall within the 80s and 90s percentage brackets.
The building of this Schoonord to Crane four-lane highway is a major component of the continuous infrastructure transformation taking place across the country.
It is expected that these infrastructural developments will greatly improve Guyana’s transportation system, boost economic development while creating job opportunities.
The contracts for this project, inked in September 2022, were awarded to VR Construction Inc., Avinash Contracting & Scrap Metal Inc., L-Heureuse Construction and Services Inc., GuyAmerica Construction Inc., AJM Enterprise, Vals Construction, Puran Bros Disposal Inc., and JS Guyana Inc.
