Among the projects in Anguilla to be rebuilt following Hurricane Irma, but not part of the Anguilla Programme, is the ageing Government House at Old Ta, the Governor’s official residence for many years.
Mr Nick Snee, an official at the Governor’s Office, spoke to The Anguillian newspaper on Tuesday, September 3, about the rebuilding of Government House.
“The plan is still that it will be demolished and be completely rebuilt from the ground up. It will look quite similar but it will be a more modern structure, and it will be built all at once. The integrity of the building will be better because it will be tied in – and it will have one roof as opposed to what we have at the moment. It is a building which has been added to over the years. That means that there are structural imperfections so that the building has to go and a new one will replace it.”
Mr Snee went on: “The plan for the moment is that construction companies can register now to show interest in tendering for the work -and it is one big piece of work. It does not demolish – and then rebuild. The whole package is demolished and rebuild the new residence.
“I think the tendering date is the 7th of October that companies have to register their interest and send in their papers. Then the FCO in London will issue a contract towards the end of this year with work to begin theoretically around January 2020.
“The planned build time is between 14 and 18 months depending on whether there are issues that the contractor runs into that were not planned for. Theoretically, we are looking at a residence being built there and ready to be occupied by late summer of 2021.”