There could be problems on Lot 2 of the Melville Hall Airport Road Project because workers have again threatened protest action.
Reports reaching Dominica News Online indicate that truckers have not been paid salaries since August.
“We’ve been refused fuel at filling stations because of unpaid bills,” a trucker revealed.
He also said truckers have not been able to meet their own commitments because no money has been made available to them.
Presently there are 30 truckers employed on the road and a strike could have a significant impact on the problem-plagued project.
If the truckers go on strike this would not be the first time. In May this year they stopped work complaining that they were owed “hundreds of thousands” of dollars.
The matter created a firestorm of controversy over who should be paying the truckers and when.
Despite this, the government announced in June that it was bringing in two new sub-contractors, Offshore Civil and Marine Inc and Dipcon Engineering Ltd, to assist in tackling the project.
Lot 2 of the Airport Road Project runs from Pond Casse to the Melville Hall Airport.
It is one of the largest infrastructural projects on the island.
Public Works Minister Rayburn Blackmoore has said the project should be completed by the end of December, the second deadline so far.
DNO is following this story and will provide more information when it becomes available.
Yeah, you truckers just a bunch of JOKERS. You need to stike like how the FRENCH would do it. Get real!!!!
Dont worry at the end of the project whenever that is they will say ” see we build a new road” and everyone will say yeh SKERRIT is the best. The mass corruption that went on during the project will be ignored, the blatant lies, the disappearance of monies , the conflicting interest groups and companies involved. In spite of the Chinese other motives the Chinese did say that one of the reasons they choose to send their people on projects that they fund is because the Chinese don’t trust the politicians they give the money to. Now the Chinese have a valid point lthough we all know that their reasoning is partially true. The Chinese government itself is a corruption machine and even producing counterfeit corruption too.
So the initial estimate went up in flames. Then there were change order estimates and that to is quickly running out. In the real world heads would role. But according to SKERRIT Dominica is not a real country. Go figure.
————little man ,————–
—————–what about you ?????———-
This looks like history repeating itself. First of all we must remind ourselves that this is not a new road but the upgrading of an exisitng one.
This transinsular road, also known as Imperial road was commenced under Hesketh Bell in 1902 with a grant of £12,000 from the British Govt. By the following year it had already reached Bells when work was stopped. A further £54,360 was granted in 1944 to complete the remaining section. However, within a few months of work commencing the money had run out with little accomplished amid cries of “Bobol” resonating all over the island. The road was eventually completed in 1954. There is the same fear now that not only will the current works will not be completed by the end of this year but the funds for doing so will fall short despite additional funds having been obtained from our French friends.
mayb Dec. 2013!
Allu forgot that at the begining of the year the learned Minister assured the country that the project would be completed in June. At that time there were still some 13 bridges to be built so why allu surprised that this road will not be complete until next year
it should not have to go up to 3 mouths agine because we said at the end of every mouth if the is no payment we are going to stop work so that good for all trucks
it’s labour time… so i sweet…it’s labour time…so you sour. goback to work…because it’s labour time. who cares whether you get paid or not… go the hell back to work you subjects of the labour legacy
well…..
it is a weeping and a moaning and gnashing of teeth,
the bugle that 1979 has blown for many time and it
still have more time fe blow for suffering around…..
project completed in december…. that wont happen at all !!
hey i tell truth and editor delete my comments!
he must be on somebody high up payroll
Yeah I doh know why dem man doing dat you know,,, Nuff tings I post there and dem man taking dat yeh,,,
But if you doh know, not Dominicans dat own dis web-portal yeh,,, dats all I going to say about dat
BOSS, all of those TRUCKERS are jokers…Do the charity work and shut -up!!
Who cares if you all have bills and can’t meet your commitments.
Play politics…the bank and hungry belly don’t play politics!! Truckers are jokers!!
I am a quantity surveyor and had worked on large scale projects like these all ova d caribbean and in north america i have had d opportunity to visit dominica and have taken ah tour threw the lot2 airport road project and from my professional experience the deadline of dec 2012 is seemingly impossible there are lots of work to be done bridges cuts to embankment etc hope at d end of dec the project have to be haulted as this can have ah serious negative effects on dominica
You a quantity surveyor with poor use of the English language? How do you manage to write legible reports for a start? Pull the other leg!
Garçon you attacking the messenger and not confronting the message,,,
Is Dominica Garçon we can say what we want how we want to say and spell how we want to spell an noboby cannot do noffin about it!!!
Get d message d man saying and doh try to attack d man nuh,,,
you see d Marn making sense das why you trying to attack d Marn’s Character and not seeing d message,,,
Typical Labah-rite!!!
Trevor that is exactly how the labor rats behave you understand why they don’t want to see a debate between political leaders? Malgraysar is behind time that is why he can’t grasp the fat finger syndrome on the smart phones.
See that’s one of the pitfalls of outsourcing Public-Work,,,
Garçon revitalize the Public Works Department and allyou wouldn’t have dem kinna issues,,,
Dem driver’s and operators would be backed up by an organized Labour force, and dey wouldn’t have to be going through all that mess,,,
All dem solutions to all Dominica’s Woes is right there in plain view but dem man dem too greedy and dey not operating for the benefit for the Public,,,
But wait………like the truckers did not realise what the next level was. Well wake up and smell the coffee. No law no constitution will allow you to get paid for your services.
So what about all de trucks dat Blackmoore instructed the Contractor to bring unto the project in 14 days? Are they actually working on de road? How will de asphalt work be continued when Gardahkan has no trucks?
Why isn’t de minister demanding that Gardahkan bring out these 14 trucks? Where are the trucks papa bondieu?
My government keeps lying to me.
By the way I notice that the job is being rushed to meet the end of December deadline. I hope that the integrity of the work is not being compromised. I have my own suspicions based on my own investigations.
Are you one of those psuedo engineers – we have lots of those -reveal you evidence .
30 truckers. Too many truckers on that project. what kind of trucks they have dere nuh? dem ting that carrying 2 yards of sand/dirt man? must be.
NO PROBLEM WITH THE BOYS FROM CHINA.
The truckers who own their trucks can speak out but if they do they will be victimized as the other truck drivers dont own the trucks. Some of the trucks are owned by ministers, PS’s , brothers and families of ministers so the truck drivers can only do as they are told.
Talk about eating where you taking dumps. The deadline is quickly approaching and for the sake of Dominica let us hope that Blackmoore will not have to break out an Obama phrase – ” One more year , One more year, one more year”
Wow, always the same thing over and over again. Pay the damn truckers end of story!!!
something is terribly wrong….
Stupse….allu don’t need to pay them. They will threaten protest, but not protest cause of “party”. Pay them when allu ready, the project must complete.
I tell you… Those truckers suffering in Dominica, as well as the rest of us…I tell you
Some of the trucers are only drvingthe trucks owned by ministers of gvernment, labor party cronies etc. Can these truckers really protest. Lets wait and see.
they stay working bc its all about part andy they are a bunch of fools,this country leaders are a bunch of jokers.
Dem Truckers just a bunch of jokers, u all just talk talk talk. U all should just shut Up!
I agree with u 100%!
Assertive, NOT Agressive!
that’s true they are afraid of their shadows!just big mouth they have
big mouth like you is not talk they have to talk nuh for the money what you want them to do again something stupid?smh
Why do these guys stay working there for no pay? I will bet against that road ever getting finished because it should have been finished over a year ago easily. There is a reason that this project is not being completed in a timely manner and it isn’t due to lack of equipment or materials.
a hungry man is an angry man
Wwhenevr we have projects like these the big wigs don’t use all the moneyon the project its an opportunity for them to bobol a fraction of it to share among themselves this is nothing new that’s why funding runs short they bobol the moneys now truckers are suffering but its a calculated move again by the big wigs in order for them to pump more money into the project steal some of it and dats how they enrich themselves when they get project funding
Wwhenevr we have projects like these the big wigs don’t use all the moneyon the project its an opportunity for them to bobol a fraction of it to share among themselves this is nothing new that’s why funding runs short they bobol the moneys now truckers are suffering but its a calculated move again by the big wigs in order for them to pump more money into the project steal some of it and dats how they enrich themselves when they get project funding
pay up
Ppl mite not like wat i say but honestly i believe in giving our local a job to have food on their table but that has posed a problem. i sure if it was the chinese things would be much further. some of our ppl just dont know how to work
STOP being an apologist! Grow some ba??s and tell the government to pay these guys. The Chinese are prisoners and have no rights so they cant protest. Further they don’t have monthly obligations to banks here in Dca. The truckers can only deliver the materials upon request so PAY THEM AND SHUT UP! We too like to put others efore our own.
Assertive, NOT Agressive!
when the chinese work…. sufficient and excess funding is available…. can u work without sufficient funds available???
@mention. Let me enlighten you here. The problem is not the local worker is those who are supposed to pay. My husband construction worker working on a house doing fine job even getting compliments but when payday comes the owner magically unavailable or too busy at the time. My father did a job was told he would be paid on Friday..job well done. The owner passing him straight on the road pretending not to have seen him when he was the one to tell the man wait for him. This kind of thing will frustrate anyone. The locals are fantastic workers it’s those SOB’s who have the money to pay and don’t want to. Don’t get started. The Chinese know no different lifestyle. We come from slavery background and have struggled long and too damn hard for your kind of bu……t remark
Are you guys serious?
Correction, the current extended deadline for the completion of this project (end Dec. 2012) is the third-, not the second one. According to a Govt. press release, published by DNO on 25 May,2010 the original completion was anticipated in 20 months (from the signing of the agreement with messrs. Gadarkhan, also in May of that year). This would see completion by the end of Jan. of this year.One wonders whether this project is cursed and we’ll see a fourth extension of the deadline….only seven weeks to go to the end of Dec.!!
Those workers deserve to be paid! On time!!! I live on the road and although there is progress being made, there is no way it will be finished by Dec. Many small bridges haven’t been completed and some larger bridges haven’t even been started on yet. Then theres a whole bunch of paving to do
Give them people their money! Things so hard nowadays for people to be working for free. No pay No work!
Am I missing something here? Who exactly is owing who, is it the Government or the Contrators? Did the Government contracted the truckers, or is it the Contractors who contracted the truckers?
This is the crux of the problem. Someone please help me understand who is in the middle of this issue.
Banan why do you think Blacmore was making threats yet he never follow thru at the first failed deadline. There was alot that was not said and they cover up all the corruption by throwing more borrowed money at the project. Just like the UWP days plenty undertable deals and government official petsonal investments in the projects. Dont let them fool you oh no or even rearrange you. The darkness a must come out the light. The truth shall survive