MINISTER of Works Clay Sweeting. Photo: OPM
By LETRE SWEETING
Tribune Staff Reporter
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
A $98m road paving programme will start next month to repair more than 50 miles of roads in New Providence in the first phase.
Clay Sweeting, Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs, said Bahamix will be the main contractor for the $98,210,000 programme, which aims to improve the porosity of more than 55 miles of community and arterial roads in New Providence and the Family Islands.
The New Providence portion of the programme will cost $91,207,000.68 and work is scheduled to happen within two and a half years. Sidewalk construction costs $3m and drainage works $4m.
Some $2m has also been budgeted to address flooding issues in the Dowdeswell and Bay Street areas.
“The ministry recognises that asphalt surfaces degrade over time due to weather, heavy traffic, ageing leading to cracks, potholes and safety risks,” Mr Sweeting said yesterday during an Office of the Prime Minister press briefing. “To address this, it proposes an asphalt milling and paving programme to replace old asphalt with new durable material.”
“Eventually, if you don’t fix the road, then you have to not just mill it but rebuild it. So even though this might seem a hefty price tag, if we do it now, it will save the government in the long run because we wouldn’t have to rebuild the roads from scratch.
Mr Sweeting said the ministry will focus particularly on Tonique Williams-Darling Highway, Joe Farrington Road, sections of Blue Hill Road, sections of East Bay Street and West Bay Street, DowdeswelDowdeswell l Street, Montrose Avenue, Mount Royal Avenue, Cowpen Road, Windsor Field Road, Eastern Road, Soldier Road, East Street and Kemp Road in the first quarter of 2024.
The project will include Cat Island, Long Island, Eleuthera, ongoing works in Exuma, and Abaco in the Family Islands.
Senior civil engineer Francis Clarke said the project will be different from the New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP), which started on November 2, 2009, took three years to complete and saw its initial $60m budget double. The project angered residents.
Unlike that programme, the upcoming project is not concerned with road reconstruction.
“The NRIP was total reconstruction of a road that included infrastructure, underground utilities and sidewalks,” Mr Clarke said. “What we are doing in this programme is resurfacing and repaving, taking off the old asphalt and milling it.”
Mr Francis said disruption for residents will not be as intrusive as it was during the NRIP.
“There will be private contractors, along with the Ministry of Works in-house paving arm, that will put traffic management in place to minimise any type of disruption,” he said.
* This story has been changed to reflect that the 55 miles of roads will just be the first phase.
Comments
stillwaters 10 months, 4 weeks ago
That's almost $2 million per mile?
ExposedU2C 10 months, 3 weeks ago
For one mile of a two lane road, the average cost to rip up the existing road, properly lay an aggregate foundation, and then tar and pave with asphalt, is about the equivalent of US$1 million at most anywhere else in the Caribbean, and slightly less than that amount in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. Why has our government signed a contract for only a portion of this work at a cost of almost $1.8 million per mile??!!
concernedcitizen 10 months, 4 weeks ago
This is just another way for them to get large sums of money out of the treasury to their cronies , with an added in ' shingle charge ' .IF and when the Bahamian dollar is devalued they won,t hurt they all have stashes of U S they have they have scimmed off .Plus if you have 10 million B dollars and its only worth 6 million US you still fat
ExposedU2C 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Our roads have not been paved properly for decades which is why they don't last and are in need of re-paving all over again in a few years time. It's the gift that keeps on giving to the right muck-a-mucks who keep getting these inflated government contracts in exchange for their generous kickback contributions to the right political party and its candidates come election time.
concernedcitizen 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Can,t ministry of works fix potholes ..Yeah its the gift w Shingles
bahamianson 10 months, 4 weeks ago
Listen, let's save money and do not fix the roads. Bahamian companies should not get the contract to fix the roads, it is a waste of money. When they fix the roads , two rain storms and pot holes again. You need to get the same people whom built BahaMar roads to fix the roads. The rain hits all roads and yet, the Bahamar strip has yet to have a pothole. Meanwhile, every other road on the island is inundated with the "cultural , indigenous pothole".
ExposedU2C 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Bingo! The local muck-a-mucks who get the heavily padded contracts to pave our roads and not content getting the contracts but also seek to obtain outrageous profits by cutting corners wherever and whenever they can on these types of projects.
concernedcitizen 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Our treasury is doing great revenue wise and we are breaking records in tourism , but like the IMF said we are spending money twice as fast as its coming in .They have to keep dreaming up these big projects to enrich themselves .Our leaders are becoming like Duvalier , Somoza and Mugabe .How long can we keep borrowing and taxing to keep a propped up middle class through civil service jobs ??
TalRussell 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Comrades', do keep in mind. --- You can file a claim for vehicle damages, --- Against the government, minister and road contractors', ----For Potholes are created by negligence on their part. --- Yes?
concernedcitizen 10 months, 3 weeks ago
I still can,t believe Sweeting can say this in front of cameras with a straight face
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