Recommencement of phase two of the Rosalie to Petite Soufriere road resumed on March 28, 2011 and is on-going.
The construction of the $25-million new road is a grant funded project and covers 4.16 kilometers of road work.
Officials from the Ministry of Public Works sat with GIS on Wednesday to discuss updates on the construction of this road.
Ericson Lewis, Senior Engineer in the Ministry of Public Works said that excavation and drainage work are part of phase two.
“We have received $US 1-million for continuation of works on this project and have engaged a Venezuelan company, Inversiones JJ, LLC, to undertake these works. We will be undertaking works from both ends. There will be some drainage works to be done on the Rosalie end and following that, within two weeks, we will shift all of the resources to the Petite Soufriere end. So, we expect to see quite a lot of excavation works taking place on the Petite Soufriere end. We intend to excavate close to 1.1 kilometer of road,” he said.
Lewis said that currently only a track exists and once the road is complete many benefits are expected to be derived as a result of the construction of this new road.
“The road is one of the missing links along the eastern zone of Dominica. Once that is done, we can almost say that the road network will be continuous right through the island. Of course, there are advantages for tourism development, housing, agriculture and joining the community of Petite Soufriere will be a tremendous improvement in our road network,” Lewis pointed out.
He continued, “Given the nature of the landscape from Pond Cassé going back to Rosalie, you have some tall cliffs. If there were any slides, that road would act as a possible diversion. Right now if there are any slides along that road, one would have to use the Petite Savanne/Grand Bay link road. Therefore there are numerous advantages of constructing this road and it is going to be a pretty piece of infrastructure when it is completed.”
Project Engineer, Adam St. Ville said that the communities of Rosalie and Petite Soufriere should benefit tremendously from this link road.
“As we can see, the distance from Rosalie to Petite Soufriere via the new road will be only be 4.16 kilometers, whereas, if we have to pass via Castle Bruce it is between 20 to 30 kilometers. Some of the benefits: as we know that area is a fishing community and persons from the south east; La Plaine down to Grand Fond can benefit. They can easily pass through that road to get access to fish and so on,” he said.
I think this is a much needed road. However, my concerns with some of these construction firms is their practice of protecting the environment. Just looking at the photo, the first thing I was looking for is silt fence- maybe they are out of view but that is crucial for protection of the waterways. They prevent heavy siltation which eventually gets to the streams, rivers, and sea, destroying both aquatic life. My other concern is the nature of those slopes. Excavations even on a much smaller scale, including ones backyard), would not be allowed before silt fence is up. I know the terrain in Dominica is difficult, but some of those cuts can severely destabilize the slopes and make the area more susceptible to land slides. I will not get very technical here, but this is the type of work I do (geotechnical engineering), and I believe there are a lot of precautions that can be taken to reduce landslides.
Hope the constructions goes well.
Stop fooling the people. That road started just before election that suppose to finish long time but government as usual keep on hoodwinking Dominicans and we so stupid we will give them p
raise for hoodwinking us
I hope we can act civil.
God bless Dominica and the Government 4 such tremendous work….. takin dominica to a next level.
long awaited . i need to go get fish in sansauver so i welcome the road. but pm make it will finish this trip
I guess this can happen after we have seen so many tracks turned into Motorable Roads..( St Aroment) Thank you Father! Strength , Health , Widom and Wealth to our Government!
Hope one of this day we will have the link road from Soufriere to Tete Morne!!!!
This government is really working hard for all Dominican. God Bless the PM and his cabinet. The haters and dissatisfied will always comment and wish fire and brimstone would fall on Dominica, but we the praying people will pray and God will protect this country and the government from evil.
God bless you PM Skerrit.
Droe-Boy you old enough to write on DNO you have a garden what are you planting you all have Haitians coming Dominica and make garden for Dominicans go in Roseau market who you see selling in the market am a born Dominican I went enough garden ask those young people today where is a garden the answer is Face Book. Dominica look more bad than in the time of our folks every one waiting on goverment to make the place look good fix all you house paint the dam houses stop depending on the DLP help all you self you all want to dress up like tourist but your dam houses looking. larzy Droe-Boy shup up go take a cutlass and plant something .
i gotta say thumbs up for the road but in terms of efficiency projects in D/ca taking too long too complete. Construction projects that should take 12~18months taking 2~3 years to complete and therefore when finished the cost is almost double the original estimate. This road was started just b4 elections in 2009 and u mean too tell me phase 2 just starting? Elections in 2014 will come and it wont be done yet… and u wonder what’s the difference between a 3rd World country and a developed country. This road shouldn’t have taken 18months to totally complete, who is benefiting from all this stalling?!
oh my i have been waiting for this like forever thank you lord thank you pm skerrit you are the best.let the haters hate
Dominican to dam ungratefull the DLP doing what no other goverment ever do. You expect tourist to come and ride on those dangerous road we have in Dominica am a Dominican and there are place am afraid to travel god are watching over us on those narrow roads. Drivers are still blowing horns they cannot see let the goverment do what they can litle by little eat up those dam mountain and open the roads. Dominican are getting just like Haitian never gratefull for what we have and is so the devil keep playing with Haiti just look at what happening to Haiti all the money America and the united nation give to Haiti they still in the same meseary .what hell natural protection all you young people do not want to plant or grow nothing we become a lazy nation Dominica use to feed the whole caribean every week boats and boats of food use to live the island now we hardly have enough food for us to eat.Dominican will soon import every thing they need soon from now we will import banana to. The goverment have to move the country to a new centry and they have to tackle the roads that a big problem in Dominica those lazy fools that like to come on DNO and write nonesense go do something for your country take a shovel DLP good job keep up the good work you all have a lot of haters who laugh last laugh the best DLP having the last laugh good luck my brother proud of you.
Don’t know what the hell u talking about we don’t have enough to eat. Lol I know u not living Da from saying that crap lol. The ppl that telling u that shit are the ones starving cause they buying imported goods rather that buying and doing local. The ppl crying r the ones who can’t afford buying the inports.
@long time waiting,well said my friend ,I lived oversea I was disapointed when I came Dominica for vacation I couldn’t find limes to season fish and passionfruits are so expensive,when I was growing up passionfruit used to be allover the ground at my village,you can’t find soursup juice in Dominca what ashame.Before I left dominca I planted soursup plant and citrusThis is serious matters the government need too address,The country will gone undergrain.
pm god love you help your people with god help whenever that big one starts from penville to capuchin this will be the best
One word in this post made me extremely jubilant. That word is, “Drainage.”
I remember breaking grounds for this road like one of election campayne strategy.
The pressure under which this PM and his government are working and even so, the feats they are accomplishing make a big man want to cry.
It took them long enough but just it going to stop
It took them time.Just now they going to stopd.
Incomple post hit the send button so pls do not remind me of misspelt words for an incomplete comment. As we all know you hit that button and its gone thats what happen to me. I will never forget the Durand family and the lovely people of Petite Soufriere the Stoute family imagine having a motorable road and access from Petite Soufriere to the rest of the Eastern villages of Dominica the advantages are countless. How can one knock such level of development? Only people who are hang up in colour be it “BLUE, RED, GREEN. We hope to have a big celebration when and if the project is completed. Hopefully one day we will build a 5star hotel in the Roselie area. Laplaine will become our third town lrts dream big and leave the petty politics out.
when we cut all mountains where we going and run when a giant wave comes.
that is a comment made by someone of no intelligence..
Thats Dominica’s best Idiot!!!
that person lives in a cave under ground,my four year old would not make a statement like that.(appreciate the good things we all receive)
The Doubting Thomas’ have been strck again. This time with the Bull PIstle. I do hope that tey acn recover, rub off the pain and move on. Oh boy these people are forever being whipped. Oh boy, what a way to be beaten. While the blah blah blah this man is at work to develop this country of ours. I await the next piece of scritizism form the blah blahs.
Another Venezuela grant funded project… I say thanks to the Venezuelan people.
i am so happy as to what am reading because since the year 1965 i have been hearing that they are going to build a road over ther and it only take the DLPgovernment to do a thing like that,am really happy.i must say thumbs up to the prime minister of dominica.
We need to demolish Cliffs as much as we can to make all roads safe to travel on, even during bad weather.
very bad idea. Demolishing cliffs would take away the natural protection the island benefits from. After the cliffs would you then move on to the forests?
I think this person is trying to mention the loose rocks that just come down ontothe roads at any time. But they really putting it like thu want to mash up the mountains. No chance. We do that and a tropical storm can hurt us.