Bridges, Stadiums and other things
(Aired 9 March 2006)
Tonyvguy
Now I come to the stadium, the story is very simple this stadium will probably not be completed in the period March to October 2006 as was planned. Furthermore any Guyanese who thinks that they are going into that stadium to see world cup cricket for less than $50 to $150 US depending on where you are sitting, can think again. So anyone who is not prepared to fork out at least 10,000 Guyana dollars for a seat to see a match may as well forget it.
Now we come to the facts that leave the engineers of the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers GAPE concerned, since September last year members of GAPE had requested that they be allowed to visit the stadium site, since what they were seeing from the road as far as progress was concerned did not agree with what the government's official releases were regarding the progress in the construction of this stadium, they received a response in January 2006 that the heavy rains would not allow a site visit but that they can ask for a visit again when the rains ceased. The information that the engineers at GAPE have is that a total of 11 million US has been spent to date and that US$14 million is still to be spent to complete the project which is expected to cost a total of 25 million US dollars. no project according to the engineers at Gape can expect to construct at the rate of 0.5 million US a month and at this rate the stadium would require 28 months to complete [14 million /.5 million] but the PPP are expecting to hand it over by October this year.
Based on these figures, for the stadium to be completed there would have to be round the clock construction 24/7 between now and October compressing 28 months of construction into 7 months for the government to finish this stadium by October 2006 for this stadium to be completed on time, and what is of concern is public safety, if the rest of the stadium is to be completed at breakneck speed the public's safety will be compromised.
One stadium in the Caribbean has already collapsed in a category 3 hurricane; an investigation carried out by a well known structural engineering firm from the UK indicated that it was a blessing that it collapsed during the hurricane, since it would have collapsed anyway if loaded with enough people.
So the editorial in the GAPE newsletter recommends that a review of the structural engineering drawings and calculations for the stadium be done so that its members and the general public could be satisfied that the stadium is safe to accommodate the public.
I want to add the following; this is probably going to be a rainy year as last year was and the may June rainy season is coming which will certainly cause further delays in the completion of this project. But the most revealing part of the equation has to be the promise of casino gambling license to anyone who builds a hotel for this world cup event, surely it is an indication that the widely touted tourist industry this Government has been telling us about, is, as I have said many times, a complete failure as is its minister Nadir and this is a public acknowledgment of that fact by the PPP.
Sponsored
(Aired 9 March 2006)
Tonyvguy
Now I come to the stadium, the story is very simple this stadium will probably not be completed in the period March to October 2006 as was planned. Furthermore any Guyanese who thinks that they are going into that stadium to see world cup cricket for less than $50 to $150 US depending on where you are sitting, can think again. So anyone who is not prepared to fork out at least 10,000 Guyana dollars for a seat to see a match may as well forget it.
Now we come to the facts that leave the engineers of the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers GAPE concerned, since September last year members of GAPE had requested that they be allowed to visit the stadium site, since what they were seeing from the road as far as progress was concerned did not agree with what the government's official releases were regarding the progress in the construction of this stadium, they received a response in January 2006 that the heavy rains would not allow a site visit but that they can ask for a visit again when the rains ceased. The information that the engineers at GAPE have is that a total of 11 million US has been spent to date and that US$14 million is still to be spent to complete the project which is expected to cost a total of 25 million US dollars. no project according to the engineers at Gape can expect to construct at the rate of 0.5 million US a month and at this rate the stadium would require 28 months to complete [14 million /.5 million] but the PPP are expecting to hand it over by October this year.
Based on these figures, for the stadium to be completed there would have to be round the clock construction 24/7 between now and October compressing 28 months of construction into 7 months for the government to finish this stadium by October 2006 for this stadium to be completed on time, and what is of concern is public safety, if the rest of the stadium is to be completed at breakneck speed the public's safety will be compromised.
One stadium in the Caribbean has already collapsed in a category 3 hurricane; an investigation carried out by a well known structural engineering firm from the UK indicated that it was a blessing that it collapsed during the hurricane, since it would have collapsed anyway if loaded with enough people.
So the editorial in the GAPE newsletter recommends that a review of the structural engineering drawings and calculations for the stadium be done so that its members and the general public could be satisfied that the stadium is safe to accommodate the public.
I want to add the following; this is probably going to be a rainy year as last year was and the may June rainy season is coming which will certainly cause further delays in the completion of this project. But the most revealing part of the equation has to be the promise of casino gambling license to anyone who builds a hotel for this world cup event, surely it is an indication that the widely touted tourist industry this Government has been telling us about, is, as I have said many times, a complete failure as is its minister Nadir and this is a public acknowledgment of that fact by the PPP.