The Fiji Roads Authority has terminated the contract for the delivery of the Suva Arterial Road Upgrading Project 2.
This is the project that was to rehabilitate seventeen seriously deteriorated roads within greater Suva area.
The Suva Arterial Road Upgrading Project 2 had been awarded to the Guizhou Road and Bridge Company in March 2019 but since the award was given to the contractor, it has made no construction progress on the project.
In a statement, FRA Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Moore says despite the assistance provided by the independent engineer to contract, the FRA representatives Guizhou has not been able to effectively mobilise for the project and he now finds itself already being penalized due to the non-completion of two of the roads that should have been completed in October.
Moore says the termination of a contract is never a desirable outcome but FRA is left with no choice in this instance.
He says the contractor had been given multiple chances to improve but had not been able to rise to the challenge and had shown no sign that they would be able to complete it in the future.
Moore says the decision has been extensively considered and there is no denying that the non performance of the contractor presents the FRA with a number of problems because the work is now over due by 12 months and the roads continue to deteriorate at an accelerated rate.
He says FRA can no longer proceed with a contractor that was clearly failing and was showing no signs of improvement.
Moore says FRA’s major focus is to deliver the rehabilitated roads with minimal additional delay.
He adds that the FRA team will be meeting with stakeholders over the coming week to develop a solution to the problem.
