By Andrew Richards
Stabroek News
June 11, 2001
The Government of Guyana is mulling three options to get the
construction of the Linden-Lethem road underway.
One is a European Union (EU) proposal, another is through investment
funding and the other is via the development of regional
infrastructure by South American countries.
A feasibility study done on the road is currently in Brussels for
consideration by the EU. The EU has separated the options for the
construction of the road into three parts.
The first is a 26.6 million Euros investment. It entails following
the existing road and trails as closely as possible, with the minimum
of earth works necessary to provide cross-drainage and to avoid
flooding during the rainy seasons.
The second is a 44.2 million Euros investment. This involves an
engineered alignment to provide design speeds of 65 kilometres per
hour (kph) and 80 kph with ten-metre wide gravel cross-section,
cross-drainage culverts and erosion protection works together with
permanent international standards bridges.
The third EU option is worth 107.3 million Euros and includes an
engineered alignment to provide design speeds of 80 kph and 100 kph
with a seven-metre wide paved carriageway and 1.2-metre wide
shoulders. This will have cross-drainage culverts and erosion
protection works and permanent international standard bridges.
The EU report recommended the second option. It was noted that the
stretches of road between Linden and Lethem and between Kurupukari and
Annai were constructed in accordance with the second option in 1980
and 1991 respectively, except that the bridges were made of timber and
not concrete.
It was recommended that the road be managed and maintained by a
specially created authority and that the authority be financed by cost
recovery measures.
Governor of the Brazilian state of Roraima, Nuedo Campos, was in
Guyana last year and pledged to assist in the sourcing of investment
funding for the road.
The Takutu bridge linking Guyana and Brazil just off Lethem is slated
to be finished this year. The Brazilians are doing the work and the
design for the construction of the bridge is expected to be completed
and handed over to the Guyana government shortly.
The state of Roraima is interested in the construction of the
Linden-Lethem road. Having recently embarked on a massive industrial
programme, the state will be looking for the best route to transport
its exports. The road through Guyana, which would provide a direct
link with the state of Amapa in Brazil, is considered a viable option.
The idea behind boosting the regional infrastructure in South America
is to forge closer links among the countries on the continent.
In its list of eight priorities for the development of the
infrastructure, the Linden-Lethem road is ranked sixth.
The priorities are:
1. The Andean hub - linking Caracas (Venezuela)- Bogota
(Colombia)-Quito (Equador) -Lima (Peru)-La Paz (Bolivia);
2. Linking Brazil-Bolivia-Paraguay-Chile-Peru;
3. The Mercosur-Chile hub;
4. Advancing sectoral processes to facilitate movement among and
between states;
5. The Orinoco-Amazon plateau;
6. Linking Brazil-Guyana-Suriname-Venezuela;
7. The Amazonias;
8. The sale of electricity between and among South American states.
The target date for discussion on the Brazil-Guyana priority is
December this year.
"After these discussions then we will know where we are and how
we will proceed with the project," a Ministry of Transport and
Hydraulics official said.
In the meantime, government has put forward a figure for approval in
the national budget for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the
road. Last year, government reportedly spent over $30 million on the
road.
The advent of the rainy season has affected the road to some extent.
Drivers now have to use winches when they encounter bad patches on the
road.