Work to repair the section of the Paget Farm Road in La Pompe Bequia referred to as ‘Bluff’ is now estimated to be completed by the first quarter of 2025.
This after Minster of Transport and Works Montgomery Daniel said in Parliament on December 19, 2023 that the work was to be completed by February 2024.
Daniel said during the October 15 meeting of Parliament that the rehabilitation of the piece of road had suffered a series of changes in scope.
He was at the time responding to a question posed by Dr Godwin Friday, Opposition Leader and Parliamentary Representative for the Northern Grenadines.
Friday asked for the Transport and Works Minister to provide an explanation as to why the repair work was taking longer than projected and when will the work be completed.
According to Daniel, the work now included the reconstruction of a motorable pavement and the widening of the road to 20 feet.
These particulars, he said, emerged following earlier consideration for the road realignment inland.
Designs were developed by FDL Construction Inc out of St Lucia and the Ministry of Transport, Works etc.
But those options, though more resilient, were much more expensive to implement, Daniel explained.
At present, the outstanding work include the reconstruction of a 35-metre concrete pavement including drains, upper embankment stabilization and concrete stair restorations.
Friday, who has asked about the project on several occasions responded that he was hoping that Daniel was going to indicate that the rehabilitation work would be completed much sooner than the first quarter of 2025.
“Tourist season is starting, the airport is down on that side, everybody has to pass there,” Friday told Parliament.
“The people traveling back and forth from Paget Farm to the harbour are fed-up. This was to be done in February this year,” he continued.
According to Friday, the ongoing work was said to be temporary solution and he inquired if this was still the situation, or if there were plans for a permanent solution with a road realignment.
The transport and works minister then responded that the work being done presently was temporary.
He said further that the Parliamentary Representative for the area was part of the discussion and that he knew that there were three options proposed to have the road done properly.
One was temporary and urgent, the second was a medium-term fix and the last was a long-term fix.
He added that the scope of work identified and the designs done for the rehabilitation of the piece of road had changed because it was felt that the road needed to be wider and that a wall needed to be constructed in order to stabilize the area. “The scope would have changed and the work went on longer than expected
