After much delay of plans over the years, money has been allocated to reconstruct two portions of road in the town centre of Anguilla. One is a stretch of road leading to the Tourist Board Office in The Valley; and the other is the Carter Rey Boulevard from the Roundabout down from the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport to The Valley Roundabout, just outside the Ronald Webster Park.
Commenting on the road development plans, the Minister of Infrastructure and Tourism, Mr. Haydn Hughes, said: “Anguilla has marketed itself as an upmarket tourist destination. And the Anguilla Tourist Board’s Office is what we always envisioned as the centrepiece of the hospitality product as it relates to persons wanting information about Anguilla. From the very inception, that road and the parking area have been inundated with potholes, dust and so forth. I took it as my responsibility, as the Minister of Infrastructure and Tourism, to move forward to get that road done. I am happy and pleased to report that I have received approval from Executive Council for the funding for that road. At present, the Road Engineers and the Technical Staff are going through the designs and engineering – and we expect the work to go to tender very shortly.”
Asked to explain the area, he said it was just from the Albert Lake Drive sign west, and north, to the Tourist Board’s Office. The work takes in part of the flood-prone Valley Main Road where further work is planned later on. “As I have always said, if you cannot do all at once, you do it bit by bit until you get to where your goals are. That is the private sector in me, bringing into the public sector how we can do things incrementally until we reach to the final goal.”
According to the Minutes of the Executive Council’s Meeting of October 29, 2020, the sum of 270,000 EC dollars has been appropriated for the project.
Mr. Hughes went on: “I am also pleased to announce that we have selected a tender for the surveying of the Carter Rey Boulevard and we will shortly be announcing who the person is. We have already commenced the design and engineering for that road. It will be from the Roundabout [opposite] the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport to the Roundabout at the Ronald Webster Park. I am very excited about it. I believe for certain that it can be done, and it will start soon. We have the funding for it already. The cost is 7.5 million EC dollars.”
The Minister added: “I am working very diligently, and right now I am concentrating on the resurfacing of the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport. That will be done. There are no doubts…about it. I am not making a frivolous promise. It will be started within the next six months without the shadow of a doubt.”
