Minister: Smaller MTW budget but roadwork still priority

Government has cut the budget to the Ministry of Transport and Works for the coming financial year, but the Minister Santia Bradshaw insists this does not translate to less money for the upkeep of Barbados’  road network.

Bradshaw, who is also Deputy Prime Minister explained on Monday that though $6 million was slashed from her Ministry for the 2025-2026 fiscal, “it is a fact that we are spending more on infrastructure now than we have ever done whether it has been a Barbados Labour Party Administration or Democratic Labour Party Administration”.

As the Estimates Debate continued in the House of Assembly, Bradshaw told  the lower chamber an allocation of $128.92 million was going to her ministry, of which $101 million represented non-statutory spending.

The Ministry, she explained, was 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.

In making the case that her Ministry still places emphasis on road maintenance, she said it had injected $35 million more into what was already assigned for this purpose in the now ending financial year. That decision, she noted, had resulted in more than 70 roads being upgraded.

“We recognised that especially with climate change, a number of our roads were deteriorating faster than expected. We also recognised that we had to start to plan in the wet months to execute works in the traditionally dry period from January to June. Currently ongoing is another focus programme which will see another $28 million invested before the end of the financial year into upgrades of a number of roads, roads being milled and paved,” Bradshaw disclosed.

She noted that many of the improvements will be made to problem areas that were highlighted by other MPs, potential candidates for political office, and from members of the public during government’s Parish Speaks Town Hall meetings.

In her presentation from the well of parliament surrounded by senior officials from across her ministry,  Bradshaw disclosed the Ministry was increasingly contracting the services of private sector service providers to cover the increasing demands of the ministry.

“We introduced a design and build model last year under the CAF project, taking a significant burden off of our technical team, both in terms of design and supervisory management, and this has enabled movement on roads such as Prior Park in St. James, Shop Hill to Content, and Jackson to Bridgefield in St. Thomas to be accelerated.

“This approach has enabled the technical team to focus its attention on oversight and overall supervision of works, while also restructuring its operations, developing and enforcing standard operating procedures across the ministry.

(IMC1)