Troy bridge dilema! NWA says private sector has not responded to tender to replace collapsed structure
It appears that residents of Troy on the border of Trelawny and Manchester who have been without a bridge for more than two years, will have to wait a while longer before the structure is replaced.
This, after the Chief Executive Officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), Everton G Hunter, told a parliamentary committee last week that there has been no interest from the private sector in two tenders that have been issued to construct a replacement bridge.
Members of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) were told that the NWA had, twice, in the last six months put to tender the construction of a bridge but there was no response from the market.
“If you scrutinise the website of the Public Procurement Commission there are no Grade 1 bridge contractors so we had to expand the category to include civil engineering or whatever and we still did not get any response from the marketplace,” Hunter shared.
Since the Troy Bridge collapsed in August 2021, schoolchildren and other residents have been using makeshift methods, including a fallen tree that was converted into a footbridge and a zipline comprising a rope and bucket to cross the river. The risky makeshift footbridge connects residents in the neighbouring communities of Cowick Park in north-western Manchester to Troy in southern Trelawny. Since the bridge collapsed, residents have had to use a 15-mile alternative commute for safety.
Hunter told the PAAc that it was not only procurement issues that mitigated against efficient implementation of the project, but the inability of the marketplace to be able to respond to the different requests made by the NWA. He explained said that China Harbour Engineering Company could probably construct the bridge, however, he said it was not registered as a local company “and so we are prohibited from using them in that regard”.
The NWA head insisted though that the challenge was the lack of take-up by the private sector.
“If the capacity does not exist in the private sector all the rules and regulations and the speeding-up and whatever …you just will not get the output that is desired,” Hunter said.
