She Took Over a Road Company in 2007. Now Beverly Tapp's Firm Has the G$118M Contract to Start the Home of the Golden Jaguars.

By LCN Business Desk

A Guyanese contractor led by a woman who has spent thirty years running it, co-leading from its founding and alone since 2007, will break ground next week on the national football ground. The Guyana Football Federation signed a G$118 million contract on Tuesday with B&J Civil Works, of Triumph on the East Coast of Demerara, for the first phase of the Blue Water Shipping Stadium at D'Urban Park in Georgetown. Six firms bid for the work. B&J won it.

Construction begins on 10 November. The design the firm will build to has already been through FIFA and Concacaf, both of which examined it and confirmed it meets the standards for hosting international matches, and both of which stay on the project as it goes up.

Beverly Tapp holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Guyana, an MSc in Highway Engineering from the University of Birmingham and a diploma in project management. She is managing director of B&J, and has worked as project manager and project engineer on its jobs.

What exactly has B&J Civil Works won?

A G$118 million contract for Phase One, signed at the GFF Secretariat on 3 November 2026.

The federation's own release names those at the signing: President Wayne Forde, Second Vice-President Rawlston Adams, General Secretary Pushpargha Chattopadhyay and, for the contractor, Beverly Tapp. The federation advertised the tender on 27 August, had the process managed by Surveying & Project Management Inc., and drew six bids.

"Investing in modern football infrastructure is fundamental to the long-term growth and sustainability of our sport," Forde said in the release.

Phase One is the groundwork and the grassroots half: general site development, two FIFA Arena mini-pitches with spectator bleachers and floodlighting, male and female dressing rooms and washrooms, a security station, perimeter fencing, bridge and culvert infrastructure, and the main entrance and access works. The mini-pitches will serve schools and surrounding communities through FIFA's Football for Schools programme, which came to Guyana under a 2022 memorandum between FIFA, the federation and the Government of Guyana. The completed stadium is expected to hold about 10,400 spectators and to become the home ground of the Golden Jaguars and the Lady Jags.

How did Beverly Tapp come to lead the company?

She co-led it from the start, and has run it alone since her husband died in 2007.

Jochen M. Tapp was a German mechanical engineer who first came to Guyana in 1979 on his way to Brazil, and never got there. He stayed, travelled to the hinterland, brought in his own equipment including a German truck, and in 1993 launched J. Tapp Road Construction Firm, the Guyana Chronicle reported in 2018 on the company's twenty-fifth anniversary. The early work was transport to interior mining communities, then the Upper Mazaruni Road Project, Mabura and Rockstone.

He met Beverly Allen, a construction engineer, in 1990, and they married. She left her post at Hinterland Roads Construction Company to co-lead the company from its founding, taking charge of the engineering side, and the business was renamed B&J Civil Works in 1998. The couple had one daughter, Josephine Tapp-Rutherford, an attorney-at-law and tax advisor who joined the company full time around 2020, and who is now president of the Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guyana and one of two women holding seats on the Private Sector Commission's executive committee.

What has the firm already built in Guyana?

Several things the country had not had before.

B&J built Guyana's first pedestrian overpasses, the three at Houston, Eccles and Peter's Hall on the East Bank of Demerara. It designed, supplied and installed a 150 kW hydropower plant on the Chiung River at Kato in Region Eight. It built a cable landing foundation and compound for ExxonMobil through American Manufacturing Services. It brought thin concrete pavement technology into Guyanese road work, piloting it at Princess and Water streets in Georgetown after Tapp and her concrete works supervisor trained in Panama, and it uses geotextile fabric to strengthen weak subgrade soils.

In December 2022 it was reported as the first female-owned construction company in Guyana to hold ISO 9001:2015 certification for its quality management system.

Its roads run through most of the country. Bartica, Charity on the Essequibo Coast, Wakenaam, Hydronie, Vive La Force, Sophia, Buxton Friendship, Bath-Woodley Park, Rosignol, Plantation Glasgow, East Bank Berbice, New Amsterdam, Rose Hall, Corriverton, Moleson Creek, Laluni, Moblissa, Wismar and Mahdia.

What does its public contract record look like?

Thirty-three years of it, from a first job at Bartica in 1993 to a football stadium in Georgetown.

*Awards from Cabinet decisions reported by the Department of Public Information and Stabroek News; bids from NPTAB tender evaluation records of 25 May 2021 and 6 March 2025. A bid is not an award, and NPTAB's evaluation sheets record what was offered, not what was won.*

The stadium is not the measure of the firm's reach, and neither is the table. A state tender is advertised, bid and minuted, so it leaves a public trail. Private work leaves none, and none of B&J's private contracts appears in records of this kind. Its private clients have included the Guyana National Industrial Company and ExxonMobil, and many of its jobs through the 1990s and early 2000s were funded by the Inter-American Development Bank or the European Union.

What does Beverly Tapp want to build next?

A major highway.

She told the Stabroek Business in December 2022 that her wish before she finished was to have her firm preside over the construction of a major highway somewhere in Guyana, and that B&J would welcome partnerships with smaller firms to put together stronger bids for bigger work. She also said that the commitment of her workers and her determination to deliver quality were what had carried the company, and that managing a firm in a male-dominated sector had never deterred her.

Guyana is building those highways now. The Craig to Land of Canaan four-lane road on the East Bank of Demerara was about half complete in September, with eight contracts worth G$52.56 billion across roughly 11.3 kilometres.

The firm has taken University of Guyana students as interns, on the view that classroom learning needs site time behind it.

The entities

• B&J Civil Works is the Guyanese road and civil engineering contractor at Triumph, East Coast Demerara, awarded the Phase One contract, founded as J. Tapp Road Construction Firm in 1993 and renamed in 1998.
• Beverly Tapp is its managing director, in post since 2007.
• Jochen M. Tapp was the German mechanical engineer who founded the firm and died in 2007.
• Josephine Tapp-Rutherford is Beverly Tapp's daughter, an attorney-at-law and tax advisor, president of the Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guyana.
• Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is the national football association that let the contract and signed it at its secretariat.
• Blue Water Shipping is the company holding naming rights to the stadium for an initial five years.
• Surveying & Project Management Inc. is the firm that managed the tender process.
• National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) is the state body whose evaluation records carry the firm's published bids.
• National Drainage & Irrigation Authority is the procuring entity for the two Mahaicony road tenders of March 2025.
• Concacaf is the regional confederation that confirmed the design meets its hosting requirements.
• Private Sector Commission is the apex private sector body on whose executive committee Josephine Tapp-Rutherford sits as honorary secretary.

What the title card says

• Headline: Beverly Tapp took over a road company in 2007, and her firm has the G$118M contract to start the home of the Golden Jaguars.
• Contract value for Phase One: G$118,000,000, awarded by the Guyana Football Federation.
• Firms that bid for the work: 6. B&J Civil Works won it.
• Date the contract was signed: 3 November 2026. Date construction begins: 10 November 2026.
• Year Jochen M. Tapp founded the firm, as J. Tapp Road Construction Firm: 1993.
• Years Beverly Tapp has led the firm: thirty, co-leading from its founding and alone since 2007.
• Pedestrian overpasses built, Guyana's first: 3, at Houston, Eccles and Peter's Hall.
• Hydropower plant designed, supplied and installed on the Chiung River at Kato: 150 kW.
• Expected capacity of the completed stadium: about 10,400 spectators.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the contract to build Phase One of the Blue Water Shipping Stadium?

B&J Civil Works, a Guyanese road and civil engineering contractor based at Triumph on the East Coast of Demerara and led by managing director Beverly Tapp. The Guyana Football Federation awarded it a G$118 million contract and signed it on 3 November 2026. Six firms bid for the work.

Who is Beverly Tapp?

An engineer with a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Guyana, an MSc in Highway Engineering from the University of Birmingham and a diploma in project management. She has led B&J Civil Works since 2007, having taken it over on the death of her husband Jochen M. Tapp, who founded the company in 1993. She has also worked as project manager and project engineer on the firm's jobs.

What has B&J Civil Works built before?

Guyana's first pedestrian overpasses at Houston, Eccles and Peter's Hall, a 150 kW hydropower plant on the Chiung River at Kato in Region Eight, a cable landing foundation and compound for ExxonMobil, and roads in most regions of the country. It introduced thin concrete pavement technology to Guyanese road work, and in December 2022 was reported as the first female-owned construction company in Guyana to hold ISO 9001:2015 certification.

What does Phase One actually build?

Site development and grassroots facilities rather than the stadium bowl: two FIFA Arena mini-pitches with bleachers and floodlighting, male and female dressing rooms and washrooms, a security station, perimeter fencing, bridge and culvert infrastructure, and the main entrance and access works. The mini-pitches are to serve schools through FIFA's Football for Schools programme.

When does work start, and how big will the stadium be?

Construction begins on 10 November 2026. The completed stadium is expected to hold about 10,400 spectators and to serve as the home ground of the Golden Jaguars and the Lady Jags, as well as hosting international football, league matches and other events.