Chinese contractor builds road around poles on new East Coast corridor

(Kaieteur News) – A Chinese contractor hired by the government to expand the East Coast Demerara Corridor between Sherrif Street to Orange Nassau has built the new highway around a number of existing utility poles, raising serious questions about safety of motorists, the use of the country’s resources and the likelihood of costly correctional works that may be required.

The US$192 million project is being executed by China Railway First Group Co. Limited through a loan by the China Export Import (EXIM) Bank.

This newspaper observed that the poles were left firmly in place along the new roadway, a glaring infrastructural failure and evidence of poor planning on a newly paved highway, exposing structural deficits in the Ministry of Public Works’ engineering oversight, according to procurement documents and visual evidence.