Materials being cleared: John Gray High School preps for reboot of construction

The Education Ministry confirms ten-year-old material and equipment from the John Gray High School are being cleared out and in some cases will have to be discarded.
This as government moves to restart construction on the country’s largest capital project to date.
Government signed on a decade ago to build new high schools.
So far $200 million has been spent with Clifton Hunter High School and a new gym at John Gray High School being completed to date.
The Education Ministry tells Cayman 27 its project team is in the process of taking inventory of the materials stored on the compound.
It was unable to provide a dollar value for the material on site.
But it confirmed items, like doors, lights and other equipment, have been sitting on the compound for more than ten years.
Officials said the material is being sorted in three categories, what can be reused, what needs to be tested before reuse and what needs to be removed.
Items to removed will be assessed and priced on current market value. Local contractors will have the chance to buy the items.
The Ministry stressed no material will be sold or given away to the public.
The Ministry also added some items have already been deemed obsolete.

Read the Ministry’s response to Cayman 27’s query:

As part of the original project that commenced over 10 years ago, JGHS equipment was purchased up front, alongside that for CHHS,  to achieve savings in procurement.

In the intervening time much of the equipment which was stored, awaiting the restarting of the JGHS project, has become obsolete and much of it has also degraded to such an extent that it is unusable – or judged to carry too high a  potential risk of failure to now be acceptable in the project.

For example – there are hundreds of fluorescent lights – which LED technology had superseded, providing electricity cost savings which outweigh the loss of investment in the fluorescent lights.

A further example is the numerous metal doors – which despite the buildings being closed have rusted beyond use.

The project team needs to clear the buildings in preparation for the restart of construction at the end of the year.

They are working through the inventory and sorting the stored material into three categories

1. Equipment to be  re-used – e.g.  porcelain ware  such as toilets
2. Equipment that needs to be tested and passed before reuse – e.g. electrical panels
3. Equipment that needs to removed

The equipment to be removed will be assessed and priced on the current market value.

If it is judged that there is any material for which some costs may be recouped, then local contractors will be offered the opportunity to purchase and remove such materials. The purchasers will assume the risk for those materials at that time.

There is no intention to sell or give away material directly to the public.

Material that is assessed as being unusable or of no economic value will be discarded.

Until we sort the material into the three categories we don’t know what is being discarded. Therefore until that time we can’t evaluate the original cost of the items to be discarded  – and indeed even then – we don’t know what the ultimate losses will be until we assess whether we can sell these items – and then sell them at whatever price we achieve – and thereby offset any loss incurred.