Bradshaw: Major road fix drive to reach ‘most districts’ this year

A national programme of road rehabilitation will reach nearly every community in Barbados this year, with work beginning this month and continuing through June, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw vowed on Wednesday.

The transport and works ministry has spent recent months clearing long-outstanding projects from its files, advancing designs and completing tender processes so contractors could move quickly into construction, she added.

“We have finally awarded a number of those contracts in the last few weeks, and we are ready with our contractors to move,” Bradshaw said, adding that the upcoming programme would span highways, primary roads and residential communities.

She noted that the scale of the rollout was intended to ease long-standing pressure on areas affected by deteriorating road conditions.

“In that list, we have touched almost every community,” Bradshaw said, noting that the aim was to reduce complaints and claims linked to damaged infrastructure while improving overall road quality.

January to June remained the ministry’s most productive construction window, as shifting weather patterns had narrowed the reliable period for major roadworks. The rainy season officially begins on June 1.

The ministry had adjusted its internal planning cycle to ensure that technical assessments, designs and tendering were largely completed during the wetter months, allowing contractors to “hit the ground running” once dry conditions returned.

“We use the June to December period to get our assessments done, our preliminary drawings and detailed designs ready, so that we can go to tender and be ready to move when the window opens,” Bradshaw said.

The minister also signalled that the 2026 programme would continue a mix of large arterial projects and smaller community-level works, including residential roads and targeted rehabilitation under the programme financed by CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America, using roller-compacted concrete and traditional concrete surfaces.

While she did not identify specific roadways, Bradshaw said a wider briefing with the media was planned for next week, when details of the 2026 rollout and upcoming projects would be outlined.

She framed the programme as part of a longer-term effort to modernise how the ministry manages road maintenance and delivery, noting that changing decades-old systems and work practices required sustained investment, training and coordination.

“Technology is driving how we operate now,” Bradshaw said, adding that the ministry was focused on improving efficiency while building capacity among staff and contractors to meet growing infrastructure demands.