$57 million to be spent on road improvement and bridges

A 2017 international report had rated a whopping 55 per cent of Barbados’ roads as “poor” while another 15 percent were branded as “bad”, Minister of Transport and Works (MTW) Santia Bradshaw told the House of Assembly on Monday.

 

As debate on the 2025-2026 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure continued for a second week in Parliament, focus shifted to MTW, which was allocated $128.92 million for the coming financial year which begins on April 1.

 

According to Bradshaw, who is Deputy Prime Minister, the International Road Assessment Programme’s (IRAP) partial assessment of 2017 occurred prior to the current administration taking office.

 

She told the Lower House that since 2018, the administration was focused on improving road conditions including bridges, particularly those in the Scotland District. While a full assessment of road conditions now was not completed, a 2022-23 sample of approximately 600 kilometres of the 2100-kilometre network, found that 31 per cent of major highways were in poor condition.

 

In response, the St Michael South East Member of Parliament informed that in the Estimates consideration was given to the “unpredictability of climatic events and the need for us to continue to accelerate the maintenance and rehabilitation of our critical infrastructure”.

 

In this connection, Bradshaw told the Lower House some $57 million have been allocated for roads and bridges under various programmes.

 

Under the Tenantry Roads sub-programme $5.7 million will be spent to upgrade short roads and cart roads, with a number of small contractors being assigned to this programme.

 

Under the CAF programme, $13 million has been assigned to continue works on roads at Cottage Vale, St Philip, which she described as a “challenge” for successive administrations to fix.  In addition, improvements will be coming to roads at Chancery Lane and Bagatelle Gardens among others.

 

“[Regarding] bridge construction, we have allocated funds in this financial year, $4.6 million towards the strengthening of bridges, culverts, and retaining structures across the island.

 

“We are at the point now where we can complete Pie Corner Bridge in St. Lucy, phase two of those works, and works will commence in this financial year at Bawden’s, Dark Hole, Parks, which is on Highway 3, Lamberts, Chimborazo, Farm Road Bridge, Haymans in St. Peter, and Date Tree Hill.

 

“We have a plan for aggressive maintenance in relation to a number of our structures, which again, it is no mystery that we have had serious neglect over the years. And at this stage, we have determined that we have to allocate the necessary funds to ensure that we improve the condition of our bridges across the country,” Parliament was told.

 

The Ministry of Transport and Works is responsible for the operation of 13 depots across the island, the Licencing Authority, the Drainage Unit, the Government Electrical Department, maintenance, repairs and rehabilitation of our road network, including highways, residential roads, tenantry roads, cart roads, bridges, retaining structures and culverts, the provisioning of streetlights, sidewalks, traffic management, drainage and signage. It is also responsible for public transportation services through the Transport Board and Transport Authority.

(IMC1)