The Tribune

WORK on the $3m redevelopment and revitalisation of the eastern end of Potter’s Cay Dock has made “significant progress”, is on budget and slightly ahead of schedule, according to Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin after a tour of the site this week.

Debris, delinquent vessels and unwanted material and equipment discarded by mail boat operators and others over the years has been removed and as a result of that clean up, dock officials on Wednesday showed Mrs Hanna Martin that marine life and birds are returning. She also saw the landscaping and boardwalk being constructed at both the entrance and exit to the dock.

The Government allocated $3,122,989 for the re-development project, which is a product of private and public sector involvement with many of the ideas for the re-development coming from the mail boat operators and various governmental agencies. The Minister said the project is currently on budget and is a little under the timeline because of the utility upgrades being done around the dock, which includes elimination of need for generators.

“This is being done to really enhance the experience out here,” Mrs Hanna Martin said. “People come out here to enjoy themselves and relax with their families. So this aspect of it provides a sea breeze view and in fact, when you are driving by, you will get that for the first time ever. So this is a really a critical component. This is just not an industrial facility.”

She has noted that Potter’s Cay Dock is an historic facility that has undergone significant changes over the years and has not been without problems. It has been largely undermanaged, crowded and congested with the infrastructure badly in need of repair. The causeway is buckling, potable water is a challenge and some vendor huts are dilapidated. Security is also a challenging issue. As a dock that handles local maritime traffic, commercial and personal, the Police are constantly refining their strategies to confront criminal elements with intentions to disrupt the peace on the Dock.

The project to re-develop Potter’s Cay Dock is being conducted in three over-lapping phases, with Phases I and II currently underway and due to be completed by the end of October. Phase I involves the removal and relocation of trees on the southern foreshore to create a parking area, which is being extended to William Street while the second phase includes the renovation and extension of the fish farm store that will be extended by 150 feet to accommodate mail boat operators and agents.

The extension will accommodate freight holdings, bulkhead kerbing and passenger waiting area. Bathrooms will be installed.

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation’s transformer will be relocated to enable the establishment of security checkpoints to monitor and control access to the mail boat area. Permanent kerbs will be erected at the end of the dock as a safety measure.

In the final phase - expected to begin later this year or by the latest January 2017 - the causeway will be repaired and rehabilitated, the dock entry will be widened and sidewalks, signage, drainage wells and additional landscaping will be installed. It will also result in the complete redirecting of traffic to the general parking area.

It is intended that the causeway, after it is repaired and its support enhanced, will be restricted to pedestrian traffic and delivery vehicles only.

Mrs Hanna Martin said: “We are about to undertake the construction of a freight depot so that very soon you will not access Potter’s Cay Dock with freight. You will go into a freight building, you will leave your freight and the mail boat operators will have places where they will accept the freight; and it will be their responsibility to deliver to the vessels.

“This effort is the collaboration of so many stakeholders, public and private. It has really been executed in a way that for me is a matter of great pride, because it has been done so efficiently and on budget. We are hoping that in the next six months or maybe a little more, we will reach close to the finality of this project, but we have made significant progress already.”

The Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources will oversee a proposed $9m project involving the fish and food vendors and the stalls connected with their commercial enterprise. It plans to demolish the existing stalls and replace them while increasing the number of stalls to around 65 with a number of them constructed over water given the restricted space between the bridge and the bulkhead at Potter’s Cay.

The drawings and design proposal are before Cabinet for approval and according to Minister V Alfred Gray, the estimated cost of this project is $9m based on advice from the technical team at the Ministry of Works and Urban Development. The costs do not include the possibility of compensation to food vendors by the government for loss of business during construction.

If approved, the total cost of the redevelopment of Potter’s Cay could be around $12m.