No award yet for Soesdyke Highway reconstruction project

The evaluation of bids for the reconstruction of the Soesdyke Linden Highway is ongoing and an award will be made when that process concludes. Public Works Minister Juan Edghill confirmed this during an invited comment Monday morning.

Once awarded, the mostly uneven Soesdyke Linden Highway will see an upgrade to its current state. Bids for the reconstruction of the highway works were opened on January 10 and saw four bids submitted, two as Joint Ventures and two as single bidders.

Last year, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh and the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr.Muhammad Al Jasser signed a USD$200 Million Framework Agreement for the reconstruction of the road.

In Bids submitted, two companies offered discounts as part of their packages. The engineers’ estimate for the project is said at (USD) $183,567, 095 to cater for the 73-kilometer stretch of road. This includes bridges along the way.

China Road and Bridge Corporation (USD) $142 709,790, China Railway First Group Limited (USD) $169,961,928, Namalco Construction Services Joint Venture with GuyAmerica Construction Inc. USD 159,934,240 and Ashoka Building Construction Limited (USD) $174,578,688 were bid amounts submitted for the project. Ashoka Building Construction Limited has offered the government a 6% discount on its price while a joint venture between China Railway First Group Company Limited has offered the government a 5% discount on its price.

All companies that bid for the project were required to submit a bid security to the tune of (USD) $1,860,000.