Minister for Public Works and the Digital Economy, Senator Cassanni Laville is reporting that significant progress has been made over the past 6 months in the implementation of the Layou Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project.
“To-date, two of these three components have been completed, namely construction of an emergency centre in the community of Layou and stabilization of the northern bank of the Layou River and reconstruction of a compromise section of the E.O Leblanc road, west of the Hillsborough Bridge,” he said.
According to Laville, the ministry is focused on the implementation of the third component which is the reconstruction of 4 kilometres of roadway between the Hillsborough Bridge and the Yorke Valley Bridge.
“The ministry has separated this component into two phases,” he revealed. “Phase one, which involves the construction and rehabilitation of the 4 kilometre road and elements of the river training works, and phase two, which involves the construction of river defense structures at 4 critical locations.”
Laville indicated that in an effort to build resilience, the implementation of phase one will involve the realignment of the 4 kilometre roadway northwards, away from the river.
“This has significantly reduced the need for longer river revetments and retaining walls resulting in a net reduction in cost and a better means of protecting the road infrastructure investment,” he stated.
He said his ministry has tendered the contract for phase one of works and the deadline for bids was Friday 15th, January 2021.
Laville said further that 6 contractors submitted proposals for the execution of works and the evaluation of these submissions is ongoing.
“The Ministry of Public Works and the Digital Economy has commenced community stakeholder engagement to keep the community abreast with the project implementation plans,” he noted. “The Ministry has identified the properties that will be impacted by this project.”
He said the cabinet has therefore approved the commencement of the process of acquiring these properties.
Laville pointed out that it is anticipated that actual construction will begin in May 2021 and last for a period for at least 12 months.
“An investment of that magnitude will provide job opportunities for construction workers, heavy equipment operators, service providers in the construction sector…,” he said.
Laville said the Layou east road can be considered one of the main arteries which connect the west of the island to the east and upon completion the new and robust infrastructure will improve the redundancy in the national road network.
The project is funded through a financing agreement from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in the amount in excess of US$14.5 million.
I would have hoped that the 3rd stage would be TO BUILD BACK THE BRIDGE. If that bridge goes tomorrow, what will we do? Not to focus on a roadway that is hardly used. All of a sudden they want to fix the layour valley road? only now? Fix the Hillsborough bridge first. And shame on the people of layou for not protesting and demanding these things. since 2015 that bridge is down. nonsense all you doing .
What is a financing agreement. Is it a loan at an absorbent interest rate? Why the need to borrow when we have free CBI money. Don’t tell me that “the CBI money finish wi”?
The what question you asked if you were given the answer to, what would you stand to gain from knowing such thing. As to the why question regarding the CBI, if you are looking at something from the outside and making assumptions do you really think you can ascertain the truth, so long.