Government has selected Edgewater Development Ltd. to complete the long-delayed Church of God Bodden Town building on Shamrock Road, where construction started in 2010. The large concrete structure has sat unfinished for several years, awaiting more funding and the appointment of a general contractor.
In January 2019, Cabinet approved completion of the building, with the total cost to government estimated to be about $5 million.
Edgewater emerged as the successful bidder after submitting project plans through the Public Works Department and the Central Tenders Committee.
The project was presented to the Public Procurement Committee on 5 Nov., and the Edgewater Development bid was approved, Niasha Brady, deputy director of operations at the Public Works Department, confirmed in an email.
The company will complete the work necessary “to have the building available as a shelter,” Kris Bergstrom, Edgewater’s co-founder and president, said in an email. He said he expects construction to be completed around August 2021.
“The features that make this facility a hurricane-grade shelter are the specifications for the roof covering and framing, doors, windows, electrical installation including the stand-by generator, air conditioning, and LPG provisions,” Brady said.
Issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the availability of workers, are why Bergstrom estimates August of next year for completion. However, he said, construction could probably be finished “closer to meeting the beginning of hurricane season (1 June), if Mother Nature complies”.
Edgewater’s work will not include the parking lot, landscaping, curbs and gutters, or other civil works that generally are undertaken by the National Roads Authority.
Once the contract is reviewed and signed, Bergstrom said, a kick-off meeting will be held to set the timeframe for construction.
“The projected allocation for completion of the building excluding road/paving and including consultancy fee is approximately $2.77 million,” Brady said.
Prior to 2019, the government had already spent $2.5 million on the Church of God building, which is meant to serve as a multi-purpose hall and a hurricane shelter. In April last year, the Legislative Assembly approved an additional $2.04 million for the project, although a Public Works Department spokesperson told the Compass the expected cost to complete the project now is $2.7 million. The initial funding of more than $1 million came from the now-defunct Nation Building Fund between 2009 and 2013.
The fund, a community infrastructure programme undertaken by the government of then-Premier McKeeva Bush, distributed around $13 million to various projects, including more than $5.2 million to 26 churches.
Brady said that a consultancy fee of approximately $118,000 was disbursed “post third quarter 2019”. She did not name the consultant.
Bergstrom said consulting was not part of the scope of his company’s proposal.
Estimated capacity for the building ranges from 220 to 441 people.
If the building is used for sitting and standing only, capacity is estimated at 441, Brady said in her email. If the building is used for beds and cots only, 220 people could be sheltered; and if it is used for a mixture of standing, sitting and beds/cots, capacity is estimated at 330 people.
The Church of God shelter, along with a new Bodden Town Primary School multipurpose hall, would bring emergency shelter capacity in the district to 1,127, according to a government statement in January 2019.
Kayla Young contributed to this article.
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