The development of the Road Bay/Sandy Ground jetty has been given the green light after the Government of Anguilla has successfully made a business case to the UK Government for the construction of the pier.
“When we came into office one of the key issues was the jetty in Sandy Ground. It was deteriorating and we were able to work along with the British Government to achieve the repairs to that jetty, but in consideration of the repairs of the jetty, the issue of the future, the long term future of port development arose. As a consequence of this, I would like to thank the British Government for providing the support for looking into the future development of ports in Anguilla,” stated Chief Minister, Victor Banks, during the ceremony for the signing of the Agreement for the Development of the Road Bay Jetty in Executive Council Chambers on Thursday 9th March.
“The British Government has pledged to give us support with the development of a port in Sandy Ground and this port will provide a more permanent response to the issue of goods coming to Anguilla,” he stated.
Her Excellency the Governor, Christina Scott, said the challenge now is for AASPA, MICUH and DLN Consultants to try and design a project that comes within the budget.
“The UK Government has set aside some 24 million EC dollars for the next stage of the project, and we hope we can deliver a lasting solution to support Road Bay within that sort of budget,” she opined.
Acting CEO of the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority, Sherman Williams acknowledged that the Road Bay jetty has been a major concern for the import/export life of Anguilla’s economy.
He pointed out that while some drastic repairs have been carried out at the port there needs to be an actual jetty that can sustain Anguilla for future development, stressing that it should not only maintain cargo but be multipurpose. He observed: “Road Bay has not only been vital for cargo but also an important part of our culture and tourism output in terms of yachting and our boat community at the port.”
Williams said for the development of any country there must be infrastructure that is able to facilitate goods entering and leaving the country “so, in short, port development is in fact national development,” Williams asserted.
Minister of Infrastructure, Curtis Richardson, expressed thanks to the various persons involved in the project and thanked DLN Consultants who will carry out the work on the jetty. The cost of the design and supervisory services for the new jetty is approximately 1.4 million EC dollars.
President, DLN Consultants, David Lashley, whose company had previously worked on the extension of the port said, “This first visit is an inception phase in which we are trying to collect, as much as possible, the available information with the intent that we would then go and prepare a range of concepts for more detailed discussions for our next visit – and based on that we would have some preliminary estimates of the cost and be in a position to get further feedback.
“A project of this nature has a number of views from different persons, government and different entities including boat users. We would be trying to draw out as much of that information, looking in terms of the broader base planning scenarios, for Road Bay, to see how they can be incorporated into the project. Because if this area is to be utilized further, with this investment, we would obviously be looking to the future as to how it can be adapted for other usage.”
