Humphrey urges construction reform ahead of building boom

Barbados must modernise construction practices, tackle cost overruns and build more durable roads as it prepares for a major building boom, Transport Minister Kirk Humphrey has warned.

As the Barbados Annual Construction and Design Conference launched at the Wyndham Grand Sam Lord’s Castle on Tuesday, Humphrey delivered a wide-ranging address outlining the government’s vision for “Construction 2.0”. 

He urged industry figures, contractors and public servants to embrace advanced technology, enforce financial discipline and adapt to the realities of climate change.

Reflecting on his previous tenure as minister for social services, Humphrey drew parallels between the antiquated frameworks that once governed social welfare and the current state of construction in the country.

He said: “When I was minister responsible for the social sector, it was my view that perhaps technology had gone ahead and left the social behind. 

“If you were to exhume the bodies of men who led this country… and asked them to take a look at what we are doing in modern Barbados, for the most part, in construction, they would feel that we really have not yet progressed.”

He expressed concern that despite global leaps in building techniques since the Industrial Revolution, domestic practices have largely remained static. 

Humphrey highlighted insights gained from a recent study tour to the city of Curitiba, Brazil, which has been globally recognised for innovative urban planning. He noted that Curitiba began building its data-driven planning framework nearly 61 years ago, culminating in a centralised digital management system known as an “urban hypervisor”. 

“They have what they call the urban hypervisor that allows them to plan whether it is in civil works, whether it is in defense, whether it is in transport, whether it is in construction, climate resilience—everything is in one place,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey revealed that Barbados is actively developing its own integrated digital infrastructure tracking through the Office of Infrastructure and Planning (OIP) and the National Infrastructure Asset Register (NIAR). The OIP currently maintains oversight of more than 300 active projects spanning housing, agriculture and the blue economy, consisting of 59 pages of initiatives valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

The minister stressed that technological integration will be crucial to resolving chronic infrastructure defects, particularly in road construction and utility management. Citing cases where newly paved roads developed potholes within months, he insisted that infrastructure must be built to withstand severe weather, heavier modern vehicles and increased traffic loads.

“I cannot accept that the roads that we are building today only last one year, or two years. Some don’t even last one year, and these things have to change,” Humphrey said. “You have to build for the weather… You have to build for the way of the buses. The electric buses of today weigh twice as much as the buses of yesterday.”

He also addressed longstanding public frustration over utility companies excavating freshly resurfaced roads to repair broken water mains. Humphrey explained that heavy rollers used during road paving often crush century-old underground pipes, leading to leaks days later. Through digital mapping and “twinning Barbados” in virtual models, the ministry aims to pinpoint exact pipe locations and subsurface conditions before construction, preventing costly rework and traffic disruptions.

The Transport Minister also issued a stern warning regarding project management and financial accountability, vowing to end cost overruns and contract inflation on public works.

“There is a view that once a project is a government project that it is a free for all—that the government has given a contract and a job that should cost $100 all of a sudden is $1 000, and a job that should take 10 days is now 100 days. It has to stop. 

“We have to be much more vigilant in the way we go about monitoring our projects. We have to be a lot more disciplined.”

Humphrey also announced that Barbados is on the verge of a “massive construction boom”. But he expressed deep concern over ongoing labour shortages in the sector despite the availability of free government training programmes.

“It hurts my heart to hear persons in construction saying that they have to go and look for persons to hire because they can’t find work in Barbados,” he said. “I want to urge young Barbadians to go and seek out some of these opportunities… There has never been an opportunity where these two ideas have all come together—where you get the extent of free training and the opportunity to use that training in a real job.”

He also underscored the administration’s broader economic policy of encouraging workers to become equity owners in state infrastructure and service providers, such as the Transport Board, fostering greater personal investment in national development.

Humphrey appealed to citizens for patience as capital works expand over the coming years, urging the nation to abandon outdated habits in favour of long-term progress.

“The circumstances demand that we change and we honour the things that serve us now,” Humphrey said. “I ask Barbadians to bear with us because over the next two years I suspect Barbados will be a construction zone… but know that at the end of the day, all of us will benefit from it.”

(RR)