Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 05, 2017 (SKNIS): Cabinet will be considering two options for a way forward regarding the Old Road Bay Road from ADeB Consultants Ltd. out of Jamaica. The disclosure was made by the Minister of Public Infrastructure, the Honourable Ian Liburd, at the Prime Minister’s monthly press conference held on October 3.
“As you or the nation will recall…we announced that some studies were being undertaken by a firm from Jamaica, ADeB consultants. Just a few days ago we have received the preliminary designs for the Old Road Bay rehabilitation works. We have in fact received two options which I can’t speak too much about because the Cabinet has not been able to deliberate on them, but one entails hillside benching and the other one entails some land reclamation works,” Minister Liburd said.
He is hoping that Cabinet will have the final designs by October after which they will proceed with the tendering process.
The minister stated, “…hopefully that will be sometime early next year because we are just going through our budget process. Our estimates committee meets shortly and the budget session would be sometime later in the year…so hopefully by early next year we should be able to start the works, but before that we’ll be able to announce what we will do in terms of the options as it relates to Old Road Bay.”
The Old Road Bay Road was extensively damaged following the passage of Hurricane Maria and was temporarily impassable as a result.
Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris said that the hurricanes had taught his administration that it was important to rebuild more resiliently than before. He made it clear that they were fully supportive of the appropriate development of the Old Road Bay Road.
“We can’t have a situation where after every hurricane passes [there is] the same problem at Old Road. The disruption of the road network [is], in a significant way, creating consternation of one kind or the other and so we want to rebuild and we want whatever we are going to build there to be stronger and more resilient. And that is why we already have onboard here, thankfully, a group of certified coastal engineers who are helping us to come up with a solution of a more permanent nature with respect to the Old Road Bay and it will involve significant capital funds to be able to deal with that matter, but once we do it once we hope for the next 30 years we don’t have to deal with it again,” Dr. Harris said.