The Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MOPI), says that the Swedish contracting firm responsible for the installation of lifts at overpasses along the East Bank of Demerara, has signalled its willingness to rectify the faults encountered within the defects and liability period of the project.
The Ministry’s move to reach out to the company comes after an article was published in the Kaieteur News, captioned, “One year later, Minister Patterson still struggles to get one overpass elevator effectively functional.
In addition to the elevators not functioning, the Ministry said that it is aware that water has been accumulating in the bottom of the lifts, though marketed by the company as “weather resistant” among other things. Further to that, the ministry reported that a glass pane was shattered on the Providence lift, along with the lack of ventilation at the other overpasses situated in Diamond, Houston, Eccles and Peter’s Hall.
In a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of the contracting firm, dated September 27, 2019, Chief of Works attached to the MOPI, highlighted the discomfort being encountered by pedestrians due to these issues. He reminded the Swedish company of their obligations to honour a twenty-four (24) months’ warranty as well as a year of defects and liability period and their slow response to the Ministry’s call for remedial works to be done, the MOPI reported.
In a subsequent response to the Ministry, dated October 2, 2019, the Manager at Cibes Lift International AB wrote on behalf of the contracting firm to assure that a visit will be arranged for November 2019 to assess the situation.
The Manager wrote, “Since the installation, we have been working in between trying to solve issues…We are keeping a record of all parts and all correspondence concerning these lifts and we are available on email, phone conference and other… We will send our Main Technical support and Quality manager to see the lift units. This trip will be done in November 2019. At this trip we will go through each lift with RBP and preferably a representative from your side.”
The MOPI said that it sincerely regrets the delay in having all lifts at the overpasses fully functional and would like to advise the general public that they will continue to efforts to ensure that citizens can benefit from this facility as soon as possible.
US$364,000 was allocated for the Diamond overpass and US$1M for those at Houston, Eccles, and Peter’s Hall. The project is intended to make crossing easier for pedestrians on the busy EBD Public Road with the number of vehicles increasing significantly on the roadways daily. The elevators were specially designed to assist the elderly and people with disabilities differently-abled in addition to all other users.
