Lack of planning adds $7.5 million to Calle Uruguay facelift

LACK of planning is a major factor in the $7.5 million addendum to the revitalization project of Calle Uruguay in Bella Vista that has bedeviled motorists and businesses in an area once labeled the city’s entertainment district.

The Comptroller General has endorsed the addendum to the contract between the Mayor’s Office of Panama and the company Constructora Meco. When awarded in 2016 the cost was  $29.6 million and will end up costing a total of $ 37.1 million. The initial cost had already been widely criticized and the slow pace has caused more complaints.

The document with the approval of the additional funds, published on the website of Panama Purchase, indicates that the guaranteed amount will be useful to deal with a series of works that are needed in the area and that were not initially included by City Hall.

According to explanations given by  Mayor Blandon – who is hoping to be the Panamenista presidential candidate-, during the process of evaluation of the plans, the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) requested that the work in the pluvial and sanitary piping system be extended to the area of the Cinta Costera.

Blandon reports La Prensa, told the MOP that the request exceeded the scope of the work and that the local government did not have the budget so that both institutions agreed that additional work would be included through an addendum to the contract, and the funds would be transferred to the Mayor’s Office from central government.

The addendum includes connecting the sanitary line of the sector to one of the collectors of the bay sanitation project.

A second phase of the work involves introducing 285 linear meters of pipe from Uruguay o a rain chamber on Balboa Avenue, taking rainwater to the Bay of Panama.

Ulises Lay, the member of the Planning Commission of the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects, commented that the actions reflected a “total lack of planning and coordination between the entities involved. “

He said that all the works that must be developed in a work of this magnitude should be considered at the start and not wait for it to be advanced, to generate “Negative consequences.”.

According to Lay,  Calle Uruguay was an area where there were no floods until revitalization interventions started. Similar comments have been made by the Society about works on Via Espana where flooding has become a fact of life.

Residents and retailers of the zone agree in that they do not know how the authorities intended to operate the work correctly without it being connected to the sanitation system of the Bay of Panama. Not a good harbinger for a man seeking to be president.