By Arfang M.S. Camara, Communications Officer, NRA
As part of the ongoing inspection tour of all ongoing road constructions across the country, the Deputy Managing Director of the National Roads Authority (NRA), Sulayman Sumareh Janneh, stated that his Authority (NRA) will ensure that all the ongoing road construction (be it government-funded and OIC roads) to be delivered with quality.
DMD Sumareh Janneh was speaking while on a site inspection visit with the Minister of Works, Ebrima Sillah, to the Lot 1 Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) road project in the Upper River Region (URR) on Tuesday.
The Lot 1 road project, which is 69km, is contracted to Gai Construction, a Gambian-owned company, and CityScape Associate is the Consultant.
The project is divided into eleven sections of roads. The contractor is currently working on four roads, i.e., Basse Manneh Kunda – Demba Kunda – Gambiasara Road (13.93km); Angalfuta Road Project (1.76km) (Reinforced Concrete Pavement); Basse – Dampha Kunda – Tambansansang Road Project (9.2km) and Chamoi Road Project (2.8km) respectively.
The above roads are at various stages of work, ranging from the roadbed, fill, subgrade, and subbase layer, while the executive studies and design are also in progress for the remaining roads.
The overall progress is estimated at approximately 21%.
“We are constantly monitoring the activities and progress of the contractors to also ensure that all the ongoing works constructions are delivered with quality,” said NRA Deputy Managing Director in an interview.
According to him, they don’t just want the projects delivered on time but to be of quality as well, noting that they will not want the consultants and the contractors to rush through the works ahead of schedule and compromise the quality.
“As the implementing agency and technician, most of our observations will be from a technical point of view. It appears to be some deficiencies in our technical standpoint in some of the ongoing road constructions which we raised to the consultants and the contractors.”
For his part, Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Transport, Works, and Infrastructure (MOTWI), expressed delight in the level of progress registered by Gai Construction on the ongoing road construction in Lot 1.
He, however, urged the contractor to improve on their mobilization to finish the project ahead of schedule. Hon. Sillah further also urged them to deliver the project with quality.