It was de­scribed by Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan as the “gate­way which will cre­ate a new path to the fur­ther de­vel­op­ment of T&T.”

And an im­por­tant part of that gate­way was ex­pect­ed to have been opened by the start of this year.

But now Sinanan is hop­ing that the 30 kilo­me­tres por­tion of the high­way which is un­der con­struc­tion as part of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way Ex­ten­sion to Point Fortin project will now be able to be com­plet­ed by June.

“The Gov­ern­ment re­mains fo­cused on com­plet­ing the Solomon Ho­choy High­way Ex­ten­sion to Point Fortin project,” the Min­istry of Works stat­ed.

As many as 1,400 ser­vice providers, sup­pli­ers, pro­fes­sion­als, and labour­ers are em­ployed on this project at any giv­en time.

“This pri­or­i­ty link in­volves the com­ple­tion of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 30 km of high­way, in­cludes the com­ple­tion of the St Mary’s Grant Road, Mon De­sir and La Brea In­ter­changes.

It al­so in­clud­ed the com­ple­tion of round­abouts at Dum­fries in­ter­sec­tion, Shore of Peace and Dun­lop as well as over­pass­es with con­nec­tiv­i­ty at Del­hi Road and La Re­treat Road. There is the in­ten­tion to fur­ther the in­ter­con­nec­tiv­i­ty of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way from Gol­con­da to Fyz­abad and there­fore as a sec­ond pri­or­i­ty, the ob­jec­tive is to com­plete all works be­tween Gol­con­da to Su­chit Trace in Pe­nal to im­prove con­nec­tiv­i­ty along the main­line,” the Min­istry of Works stat­ed.

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic was the lat­est road­block in the con­struc­tion of the high­way.

“We know what hap­pened with COVID that pushed back all of the con­struc­tion projects. So we are look­ing at some time in 2021 to have that high­way com­plet­ed but work is ful­ly un­der­way we have five lo­cal con­trac­tors, 12 pack­ages all un­der con­struc­tion,” Sinanan said.

“The Solomon Ho­choy High­way Ex­ten­sion to Point Fortin Project was ini­tial­ly con­ceived as the con­struc­tion of a high­way built to in­ter­na­tion­al free­way stan­dards com­pris­ing of sev­er­al seg­ments, with a to­tal length of 47 km of 4-lane high­way and 2.5km of 2-lane high­way (con­nec­tor roads),” the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (Nid­co) stat­ed.

Nid­co said the work en­vis­aged in­clud­ed the ex­ten­sion of the ex­ist­ing high­way from Gol­con­da to Debe through Pe­nal, Siparia, Fyz­abad and Mon De­sir to Dun­lop Round­about in Point Fortin.

It al­so in­clud­ed the up­grade/widen­ing of the South Trunk Road from Dum­fries Road to Paria Suites and from Paria Suites to St Mary’s Junc­tion via Mos­qui­to Creek, with the con­struc­tion of a new link from St Mary’s Junc­tion to Mon De­sir

As well as con­nec­tor roads from the new high­way to Union Es­tate (La Brea), Siparia, Fyz­abad and Pe­nal.

In 2015, Nid­co was di­rect­ed to fo­cus on the com­ple­tion of the vast project. The north­ern link from Dum­fries Round­about to Dun­lop in­cludes a con­nec­tion from Mon De­sir In­ter­change back to Fyz­abad Road.

This link in­volves the com­ple­tion of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 30 km of high­way and in­cludes the com­ple­tion of St Mary, Mon De­sir, Grants Road, and La Brea In­ter­changes.

It al­so in­clud­ed the com­ple­tion of round­abouts at Dum­fries, Shore-of-Peace and Dun­lop as well as over­pass­es with con­nec­tiv­i­ty at Del­hi Road and La Re­treat Road / #8 Road.

The com­ple­tion of this link is be­ing pur­sued util­is­ing the FIDIC Red Book Con­di­tions of Con­tract un­der 12 work pack­ages.

The 12 work pack­ages al­low for the par­tic­i­pa­tion of lo­cal con­trac­tors.

The sched­ule for the com­ple­tion of all 12 pack­ages of this pri­or­i­ty link was ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed by De­cem­ber 2020.

This was to en­sure ear­ly im­proved con­nec­tiv­i­ty from San Fer­nan­do and en­vi­rons to Point Fortin, NID­CO stat­ed.

“There is an in­ten­tion to fur­ther the con­nec­tiv­i­ty of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way from Gol­con­da to­wards Pe­nal and as a sec­ond pri­or­i­ty ad­di­tion­al work pack­ages will be pre­pared to com­plete all works be­tween Gol­con­da to Su­chit Trace in Pe­nal,” NIDOC stat­ed.

Con­struc­tion works on SHHEPF is said to be “con­tin­u­ing apace” the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port stat­ed.

Road­works along the Mos­qui­to Creek stretch are said to about 75 per cent com­plet­ed.

The ma­jor­i­ty of all the foun­da­tion work is said to be com­plet­ed while work still needs to be com­plet­ed on the north bound bridge as well as the sea wall.

The SHHEPF project in­cludes the com­ple­tion of the north­ern link from Dum­fries in­ter­sec­tion to Dun­lop Round­about with a con­nec­tion from Mon De­sir In­ter­change back to Fyz­abad Road.

“This project along with many oth­ers are ex­pect­ed to ex­pand the na­tion­al High­way Net­work and in­evitably fa­cil­i­tate the fol­low­ing ben­e­fits such as in­ter-con­nec­tiv­i­ty be­tween rur­al and ur­ban com­mu­ni­ties; and ease traf­fic con­ges­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port stat­ed.

In 2018 prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley em­pha­sised that the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion act­ed against the ad­vice of NID­CO and in­ter­na­tion­al best prac­tices in sev­er­al ways in­clud­ing award­ing the project as one con­tract to a sin­gle con­trac­tor.

He said as a re­sult of the ex­panse of the con­tract, lo­cal con­trac­tors were au­to­mat­i­cal­ly in­el­i­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in the project.

Row­ley said his Gov­ern­ment dis­ag­gre­gat­ed the project in­to small­er pack­ages to al­low for greater par­tic­i­pa­tion of the lo­cal con­struc­tion sec­tor.

PUT IN BOX

PHASE 1 - PACK­AGES 2A, 2B & 1A

* These pack­ages were fo­cused on com­plet­ing works along the South Trunk Road. These pack­ages prac­ti­cal­ly com­plet­ed and was opened to traf­fic on June 8th, 2018. These pack­ages are in the de­fect’s no­ti­fi­ca­tion stage of the con­tract and punch list items are still on­go­ing.

PHASE 2 – PACK­AGES 1B & 1D

* These pack­ages were award­ed in No­vem­ber and con­struc­tion works are on­go­ing. The scope un­der these pack­ages in­volve the com­ple­tion of (4) four bridges with­in a 10 months du­ra­tion, name­ly; Pack­age 1B (Oropouche Riv­er Bridge and Mon De­sir In­ter­change Bridge and Pack­age 1D (#8 Road Bridge and Guapo Riv­er Bridge).

PHASE 3 – PACK­AGE 5A

* NID­CO in­vit­ed ten­ders for this Pack­age in 2018. Works on this pack­age in­cludes the com­ple­tion of a full up­grade of the South Trunk Road at Mos­qui­to Creek which is ex­pect­ed to elim­i­nate the peren­ni­al­ly flood­ing prob­lem in that area.

* The scope in­cludes ground im­prove­ment works to the ex­ist­ing car­riage­way, road-works, drainage works, em­bank­ment con­struc­tion, 2.5 km of revet­ment and sea wall con­struc­tion. Al­so, de­mo­li­tion and re­con­struc­tion of Mos­qui­to Creek Bridge (North­bound) in­stal­la­tion of road safe­ty de­vices, light­ing, the re­lo­ca­tion of ma­jor util­i­ties owned by the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC).

PHASE 4 – PACK­AGE 1C & 5B

* NID­CO in­vit­ed ten­ders for these Pack­ages on 19th May 2018. These pack­ages were al­so award­ed in 2018 and con­struc­tion works com­menced in Jan­u­ary 2019.

* Pack­age 1C has a scope in­clud­ing the com­ple­tion of the St Mary in­ter­change, Del­hi Over­pass bridge and Grants Road over­pass Bridge.

* Pack­age 5B has a scope in­clud­ing the com­ple­tion of ap­prox­i­mate­ly two (2) Km of 4-lane High­way be­tween Grants Road and La Brea and two (2) Km of con­nec­tor road to­wards La Brea in­dus­tri­al es­tate.

PHASE 5 – PACK­AGE 6C & 3A

* These two (2) con­struc­tion pack­age were ten­dered in Au­gust of 2018. Pack­age 3A was award­ed and the scope in­cludes con­struc­tion of the La Brea In­ter­change and South­ern Main Road (SMR) over­pass bridge.

* Pack­age 6C scope in­cludes com­ple­tion of 1.6 km of two (2) Km of 4-lane High­way along the pri­or­i­ty link be­tween La Brea In­ter­change and South­ern Main Road (Vance Riv­er). This pack­age al­so in­cludes the com­ple­tion of a 1.0 Km link from Mon De­sir back to Fyz­abad Road.

PHASE 6 – PACK­AGE 2C & 5D

* These two (2) con­struc­tion pack­ages were ten­dered in Oc­to­ber of 2018.

* Pack­age 2C was award­ed and the scope in­cludes com­ple­tion of 8.0 km of two (2) Km of 4-lane High­way from St Mary’s to Ec­cles trace. The seg­ment was par­tial­ly opened to traf­fic in 2014 in an in­com­plete state.

* Pack­age 5D was award­ed and the scope in­cludes com­ple­tion of 4.5 km of two (2) Km of 4-lane High­way from South­ern Main Road to Dun­lop Round­about.

PACK­AGE 1A

* Com­ple­tion of Mos­qui­to Creek South Bound Bridge and Godineau Riv­er Bridge PACK­AGE 1B Com­ple­tion of Mon De­sir In­ter­change Bridge and Oropouche Riv­er Bridge PACK­AGE 1C Com­ple­tion of St. Mary’s I/C Bridge Grants Rd I/C Bridge and Del­hi Rd Over­pass PACK­AGE 1D Com­ple­tion of No. 8 Road Over­pass and Guapo Riv­er Bridge

PACK­AGE 2A

* Com­ple­tion of the widen­ing of South Trunk Road from Dum­fries Road to Mos­qui­to Creek

PACK­AGE 2B

* Com­ple­tion of the widen­ing of South Trunk Road from Godineau Riv­er Bridge to St. Mary’s

PACK­AGE 2C

* Com­ple­tion of Stretch­es Mon De­sir to Ec­cles Trace, and St. Mary’s to Mon De­sir stretch­es.

PACK­AGE 3A

* Con­struc­tion of South­ern Main Road Over­pass and La Brea I/C Bridge

PACK­AGE 5A

* Com­ple­tion of seg­ment be­tween Mos­qui­to Creek to Godineau Riv­er PACK­AGE 5B Com­ple­tion of seg­ment be­tween Ec­cles Trace and La Brea + La Brea Con­nec­tor Road

PACK­AGE 5D

* Com­ple­tion of the seg­ment be­tween South­ern Main Road (B44) to Dun­lop Round­about

PACK­AGE 6C

* Com­ple­tion of seg­ment be­tween La Brea In­ter­change to South­ern Main Road and Fyz­abad Road to Mon De­sir In­ter­change