Highway One: Behind time but on budget, say officials

Motorists and businesses along Highway 1 will have to wait just a little bit longer for relief from the inconveniences of the significant road rebuild of the critical artery.

That’s because work on Phase 1 of the Highway 1 Rehabilitation Programme has been delayed by two months.

This was revealed today by General Manager of C.O.Williams Construction, Neil Weekes – one of the contractors on the project – who reported that the setback was largely due to two weeks being lost to inclement weather as well as several other unexpected challenges.

However, Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources, Ian Gooding-Edghill has given the assurance that the $15.2 million project was still well within budget.

The disclosure came following a tour of the stretch of highway from the Frank Walcott Roundabout to Sunset Crest, St James.

Weekes told members of the media that C.O. Williams Construction, which is responsible for the 1600-metre stretch of highway from the roundabout to Jordan’s Road, had so far completed 460 metres of trench and would be finished by the end of February in a best-case scenario.

Phase 1 of the project will end at Seaview, while Phase 2, which is scheduled to begin next year will run from Seaview to Six Mens, St Peter.

The project commenced on November 2 and was scheduled to be completed by December 15.

“We are about 30 per cent completed…The timeline was originally December 15 so obviously, I’ve spoken to the minister and the staff at the MTW and so far we think that we can get where we need to be by the entrance to Jordan’s Road, for the end of February on our section.”

Accounting for the delays he explained: “Normally you would put the manholes in for the [Barbados] Light & Power (BL&P) and then you would work towards them, but because we had to start as quickly as we could we had to build the manholes and let them cure, then go back, cut the ducts and rest the manholes in, which is always challenging because you can imagine you already have ducts in place and trying to get the manhole to fit,” Weekes explained.

“The minister alluded to the fact that we started November 2, but truly we lost about 14 days due to rain alone and there were some other issues that we had with existing utilities that we didn’t know were there, so really and truly we didn’t get cracking until the last week of November. We think weather permitting and all things going to plan, by the end of February is what we are aiming for…I don’t think we can go any faster than that…That’s best-case scenario.”

Weekes pointed out C.O. Williams Construction would be going on Christmas break from December 23 to January 4, 2021.

Minister Gooding-Edghill explained that the five contractors working simultaneously on the project had also encountered unexpected challenges with “hard rock” as well as fibre optic cables.

He said while these had also contributed to the delay, Government was still positioned to be within budget.

“They have had some issues in respect of hard rock so that is one of the factors which has impeded their progress slightly. They have had to cut through a significant amount of hard rock on this project. When the plan was put together the contractors never anticipated the level of rock they would have to cut through…” Gooding-Edghill said.

“We also were faced with the challenge that even though ground penetrating radar was utilized on the project to identify utility lines, we had on occasions had situations where utilities which were never mapped on the ground-penetrating radar came to the contractors’ attention and as such the contractors had to move rather gingerly to avoid any significant challenges to residents in the area as well as to businesses.”

Several businesses situated along the stretch of Highway 1 had complained of losing significant revenue due to the roadworks.

And while the minister said he had not received any formal complaints, he said he was willing to meet with the affected business owners.

Gooding-Edghill said once completed motorists, residents and businesses would see the benefits of the project.

“We have not had any reports. I’m not saying that sales have not been reduced, I do not know that, but we have not been advised formally by any businesses in the area that they have experienced such a significant reduction in sales,” he said.

“But we are a reasonable Government and we are a reasonable ministry and if any person were to approach us we would sit down and have a reasonable conversation.” (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)