New Harbour Bridge for Houston-Versailles, pre-qualifying contractors to begin shortly

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure is moving along with its plan to construct a new Demerara River Bridge and will soon commence the process of pre-qualifying contractors for the project.

According to a statement from the Ministry, the proposed Demerara River Bridge is approximately 2 kilometers north of the existing floating bridge, spanning from Houston on the eastern bank of the Demerara River to Versailles on the western bank of the Demerara River.

Contractors will be pre-qualified for the finance, design, building, and maintenance components of the Bridge.  It was noted that these aforementioned works will be procured through public tendering, with a restricted number of bidders.

The Ministry stated that the new bridge will be an essential part of the road network and will also have a significant impact on marine traffic passing under the bridge.

The procurement process will be done in two phase; there is the current pre-qualification phase and the bidding phase where three contractors will be shortlisted and requested to submit designs. They will also be required to offer a fixed price lump sum bid for the design and construction of the bridge and approach roads.

The project will see the construction of an approximately 1,500m long fixed bridge with a movable span and two approach roads of a total length of 600m. The shortlisting of the bidders shall be on the basis of the profile, track record, financial capacity of the applicant as well as on the merit of the technical, cost and financing proposals presented by applicants in their pre-qualification document.

Furthermore, in order to improve the funding package, applicants for shortlisting are requested to advance proposals for financing the project.

The Request for Pre-Qualification Document will be available for download on the Ministry’s website, www.mopi.gov.gy, from August 21, 2017. Contractors must respond by September 4 in order to be considered for participation in the pre-qualification procedure.

It is envisaged that the project will commence in 2018 and will be delivered in 2020.