The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

OUTGOING Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson said a shift in their priority of sporting activities has put the construction of the new $21m, 4,500-seat Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium at a standstill.

But when asked if there were any rumours that the workmen from Woslee Construction walked off the job because they were not paid for months, Johnson refuted those allegations.

“At this time, we’re shifting the priorities in terms of the work force in preparation for the seven facilities that we are working on for the seven core sports for the Commonwealth Youth Games,” he said.

“Baseball is not included in the Commonwealth Games, so we hope that the construction of the stadium will resume right after the Easter holiday weekend. We just wanted to shift our resources to those other facilities so that they can be ready.”

Johnson said the National Sports Authority has to ensure that the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium and the original Thomas A Robinson Track and Field are being prepared for the hosting of the IAAF World Relays April 22-23.

Construction on the new stadium began last year and is at the stage where the base for the grandstand has been erected, but Woslee is reportedly waiting on the arrival of the pieces of the stadium to be shipped from the United States.

Dant Clayton, of Louisville, Kentucky, was engaged to provide the design services for and to fabricate the grandstand at a cost of $3,963,000, according to Deputy Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis in July 2016.

Davis also said at the time that Arconcepts provided the full architectural and project management services for the stadium in 2015.And he noted that Woslee had won the bid and agreed to a project cost reduction of 10 to 15 per cent (about $3.3m) to reach a final figure of $21,351,507 after the evaluations were made by J D Chisholm & Associates with the assistance from the Ministry of Works. “The baseball stadium is actually ahead of schedule and so they had a little slow down this week, but after Easter they will be back and up at it. It’s just a little glitch that they had to work out.”

Woslee Construction was unavailable for comments on the stoppage.

With not as much expertise in the technical areas in the Ministry of Works to deal with projects such as these, Johnson said they ran into a slight delay in the construction of the stadium.

“Our focus is on the World Relays and then the World Cup, which will follow from April 27, we have to ensure that they are ready. Then we will refocus on the baseball stadium,” he said. “Baseball has had a little slow down, but they will be back up and running in short order. We don’t expect for their delay to be too long.”

When asked if there was any financial problems that affected the construction by Woslee, Johnson said there were just some technical things between the Ministry of Works and Woslee that they had to iron out.

“When those things are not signed off on, then the Ministry of Finance is also not able to sign off on the leases,” he revealed. “So it’s not just money. It’s a whole series of technical issues that we have to deal with before Woslee can move on.

“Now that they brought it to our attention, we are working very hard to achieve them and we expect that they will be back working in short order.”