Synthetic Track now to be completed by 2014

Georgetown : A new contract was signed between Ramnauth Constructing and Andre Howard Construction companies and the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport for the completing of parameter fence around the synthetic athletic track at Leonora, Region Three.  The latter will construct the ticket booths for the project.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony accompanied by Permanent Secretary (PS) Alfred King and the project’s consultant and engineers yesterday handed over the contracts to the contractors at the athletic track.

The project now into Phase Two is sub – divided into five lots, one of which was awarded to the German company Regupol to manufacture the artificial surface for the track.

Ramnauth and Howard will be executing works under phase three of the project previously awarded to contractor JP Mangal. The latter’s contract was terminated due to poor performance and is drawing the attention of the courts for the recovery of monies allocated.

In an effort to reclaim the time lost, the Ministry chose to sub-divide Phase Three and award separate contracts for the works. Minister Anthony explained that while the project was the flagship one for the Ministry, because of its complexity it involves a number of contractors on the site, some of whom have not delivered in terms of their timeline.

He pointed out also that one big contract was broken down into smaller ones in order to accelerate the completion of the fence which is essential to the project. The planting of special grass on the centre of the field to be used for football would be secured by the parameter fence which would assist in maintaining the integrity of the grass.

“If we do not secure the parameters this can be under threat… that is why we have given these contractors some very specific deadlines,” he said.

Minister Anthony also put forward 2013 deadline for the completion of the track itself and a 2014 one for the project in its entirety.  “Our outer deadline would be sometime next year once we get those contracts allocated.  If everything goes well, I would say sometime during this year this surface would have been completed,” he said referring to the synthetic track.