Preliminary work commenced this week to carry out urgent repairs on Anguilla’s Road Bay Jetty – with particular focus on the section built by the Royal Engineers in 1971 which is now showing a considerable amount of deterioration.
It is understood that Anguilla Government officials have been so concerned about the state of disrepair, in some cases, that it was feared that the structure would collapse into the sea unless the berthing of ships, in particular, was carefully done.
Mr. Shomari Kentish, the Project Engineer, spoke to The Anguillian about the repair work. “The contractor has placed his pontoons (rafts) into the water to be used at platforms to chisel away some defective concrete. The pontoons are like small barges. After that is done, there will be an assessment and then the repairing of the concrete using some highly-specialised mortar. That is what is happening at the moment.”
The brief conversation between The Anguillian and Mr. Kentish continued as follows:
“What happens after that: will the workers remove some of the piles?”
“Not really. After they have chiselled away some of the defective concrete and determined whether or not any of the piles should be replaced, a decision would be made at that point in time if necessary. But the main focus is not really a pile replacement project.”
“How long is the contract period?”
“We expect it to run until the middle or to the end of December. It is a joint project between Windward Roads Construction of St. Maarten and Anguilla Roads Construction.”
Mr. Kentish stressed that the repair work would be carried out with as minimal disruption of the jetty’s operations as possible – in terms of the berthing of ships and the movement of cargo-hauling trucks and other heavy equipment. At the same time, every effort will be made to prevent accidents on the jetty.
Last year, the British Government approved a decision of the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority to obtain a loan of EC$4 million to finance what was described as “urgent repairs to the Road Bay Jetty”. As a safeguard, the Anguilla Government undertook to guarantee 80% of that financing or EC$3.2 million. In addition, the British Government committed itself to fund a new roll-on-roll-off pier as a second stage of the investment.
