(Excerpts of the Honourable Daniel Cummings’ Presentation at a recently held Press Conference)
The developments over the last several weeks, at the brand-new port being constructed in Kingstown, St. Vincent, to say the least, is alarming, frightening and of much concern to those of us who understand the technical aspects of the unit as to the layman on the street.
What we want to attempt to do today is without going into too much engineering jargon to bring the population up to speed with the level of seriousness with the failure of the port project.
I just want to begin by reminding us that we have an over 60-year-old port in Kingstown that has survived all these years, extreme loading and there has never been a catastrophic failure of the port as has occurred at the port under construction now. That catastrophic failure begs the question, who is supervising the design and construction of the project? Who is overseeing the repairs of the massive failure? And who will give us as taxpayers the assurance that one, the repairs will bring us a port that can be used and two, we as taxpayers will not be putting the bill for the failure in both the design and implementation of the project.
I want just to set the scenario by reminding us of the concerns we have raised repeatedly about the failure of this government to pay attention particularly for extravagant projects to incorporate aspects of maintenance in the design of the project.
I give you a classic example. If you visit the Argyle International Airport and take a look at the fencing on the seaside, it’s almost completely destroyed. That, my dear friends, is an absolute waste of resource because everyone knows of the environment there and the need to have material in the fencing that can resist that. In other words, it’s cheaper to invest more upfront and get the right material for the fencing than after every 10 years to have to replace the fence because an international airport must have a secure fence. That’s a simple example.
You will hear about something called cathodic protection. What it is in simple terms is when you have metal in an environment that is prone to rapid erosion. You put what is called a sacrificial lining of iron or some other metal. But instead of the material you want corroding, this one becomes sacrificial lamb to an electrical process. I want you to get a picture of this in relation to the Ottley Hall Marina Project.
The beautiful dry dock built at the Ottley Hall Marina project is completely destroyed, completely eroded, completely rotten. Why? This government failed to deal with the cathodic protection that was installed? They allowed it to run to ruin so that there was no cathodic protection, and the sea just eat out, completely eat out the metal that destroyed that dry dock facility. Magnificent facility where ships could have come in, just in the water, drain the water, and you have a dry dock facility to do all kind of maintenance on ships. That is gone. The reason why the floating protection is of interest to me. Unlike the existing port that has a barrier protecting inshore components. This port, where the ships come up to it, has a metallic surface facing the sea. This port under construction. The project design, as I understand it, calls for cathodic protection.
If there is any failure of the sheet piling that keeps this support together. There is no layer inside the sheet pile that can prevent the sand from filtering through. You just drive piles into the sand and you start to build on that. If the cathodic protection fails, there is nothing to stop it.
What has clearly happened in this project is that the piles driven into the sand that the government used to backfill it, those sheet piles have pulled away, they pulled away from one another to the point where the sand they used to backfill has washed into the sea, created craters in what is supposed to be a solid structure. That is the reality. And that has happened not when the port has been commissioned and operational. That is during the construction period where the government, through the team, determined that the sand that they deposited in front of the sheet pile prevents them from having enough depth of water for the ships to come up along side and down. And, what they decided to do? Vacuum out the sand from in front of the sheet pile. And it is in the process of simply removing the sand that there’s failure, not just on the front, but apparently on the sides as well, of this project under construction.
As an engineer, that to me is what is categorized as a catastrophic failure of the project for two reasons. One, it makes it clear that the main structure securing the port is not either properly designed or installed. It has failed and failed drastically. And two, if in the construction phase this happens, when there is no storm, when there is no ship docking up against it, when there is no adverse activity, all that was a vacuuming of some sand in front of the project and it collapsed.
My people, can you imagine what could happen to that project if it had been in operation with extra loading on the port area or in the event of a storm which found sea swells or in the event of a mishap with a ship going too closely against the structure. These are the questions we want answers to. Can anyone assure us given what has happened, that this project is designed to the standards to meet the purpose for which we are spending almost 700 million dollars.
