Further motivated by the groundbreaking ceremony for The Valley Polyclinic on March 6, Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Curtis Richardson, was elated that port development, for which he has responsibility, was now on the table.
While the Blowing Point Port Development is yet to start, he was elated that the Road Bay Port Development had begun.
Construction work at Road Bay
“The Road Bay project is now moving full speed ahead,” he informed The Anguillian newspaper. “We are now doing a lot of dredging and driving the piles into the sea to establish the new jetty. We have cleared some of the land we acquired, and purchased, to make sure that we don’t only build a wharf and ended back into a congested situation… The aim is to give the people of Anguilla a very wonderful, operating and spacious port that is safe and free from injury due to congestion.”
Asked about the need for additional land for port facilities, Minister Richardson responded:
“We will again be purchasing the needed land. For the first time in Anguilla I want to thank God for the kind of collaboration we, as a Government, have with landowners. We have seen an increasing desire where people are supporting national development. Beforehand, people were naturally right in objecting to supporting national development because when persons are familiar with, and love a particular area, they would like to die there. But, in Anguilla today, a lot of people have come to understand that they have to support the national programme for developing the country. I am very happy that in my time the people in Blowing Point and Sandy Ground, as well as in other areas, are very supportive.
“Some of the landowners in Sandy Ground have agreed to exchange their property and others agreed to sell. We still have a few persons to work with, but they are happy to have discussions – and that is a great thing for us, and a great position to be in. We have approximately two to three acres in Sandy Ground already acquired, and we are looking at a possible three additional acres now under discussion.”
Curtis Richardson
Meanwhile, the cost of the new Road Bay jetty alone will be around 13 million US dollars provided by the British Government. Mr. Richardson put the matter into perspective. “When I came to office I approached them because the Government of Anguilla did not have the means to fix the first wharf as that was dilapidated and falling apart. They told us at the time that they were not willing to engage in that. With God’s providence I was able to go out and have a design done called ‘Build, Design and Finance’.
“Through that we were able to finance the repair of old jetty at the cost of 4-5 million EC dollars. After we did that, I think the British Government recognised the big effort, and the importance of port development to Anguilla, and they offered us 8 million US dollars which we said, at the time, would only build a jetty. I said that was not good enough because we have to be cognizant of the fact that we have always operated in constrained spaces. And I said to the British Government that I wanted not just to build a new jetty but a new port – to acquire and purchase land and to expand the port.
“It was with this vision that the British Government came back and said they would give us 13 million US dollars. So we got an additional 5 million US dollars to do a much more elaborate project that will serve Anguilla better.”
Mr. Richardson added: “The warehouse and other facilities will come as part of a second package. The Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority is also engaging with investors to see what else we can do through a public/partnership arrangement.”
With regard to the Blowing Point Port Development Project, the Minister said: “This, too, is moving full speed ahead. We have just issued all of the official letters for persons to clear the land. We will be fencing and cleaning up the site to go ahead with the passenger terminal building, south-west of the Big Jim facility which now serves as a temporary terminal.”
He estimated that the cost of the building is in the area of 8-9 million US dollars, coming from the 60 million pounds provided by the British Government under the Anguilla Programme. “The cost may be more as we look at what else needs to be done,” he stated. The proposed date for construction is either April or May coming.
