By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
MAJOR work on the Gladstone Road Improvement Project is now expected to begin mid-2023 and will last for two years, officials from the Ministry of Works revealed yesterday.
The project was originally supposed to start at the end of the year.
However, Dion Munroe, assistant engineer of civil design at the Ministry of Works, explained the delay was because the project designs had not yet been completed, among other issues.
“I mean we’re still completing the design and a part of that design is land acquisition and the encroachment issues that we’re dealing with and also repositioning of infrastructure that has to be moved over the amount of road reservation,” he said.
The road improvement project will span the entire length of Gladstone Road, which will widen from a single lane road to a dual carriageway meant to allow for increased vehicle capacity.
The plan will further add new roundabouts to be constructed at major sections to improve traffic flow and safety. There also will be changes to the roundabout at JFK Drive and Gladstone Road.
The project’s cost is estimated at some $29m.
Asked yesterday whether the funds had already been allocated, Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears explained that funding will be addressed after project designs are completed.
Notwithstanding this, he said, several financial institutions have expressed interest in financing the project.
“In terms of funds,” he said, “once the design is completed, the question then is money. We all live in The Bahamas. We know what the revenue challenges are of the government. Fortunately for the Bahamas, there are a number of additional sources to the consolidated fund.
“Multilateral sources the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), the Caribbean Development Bank and both institutions have expressed an interest in funding up Gladstone road and also, a number of other infrastructural projects.”
He also said: “The other mechanism is the PPP (public private partnership), that is to have a developer who wants to put up the funds to fund it and then get the funds on over a period of time amortised with interest – and certainly with Gladstone Road, we have already gotten very keen interest.
“I met right in this conference room with the president of the Caribbean Development Bank, and also with representatives of the IDB. So, there is keen interest, but we have to complete the design and, as Mr Munroe stated, to widen the road, land has to be acquired, and it requires negotiation with the land owners.”
This comes as many motorists continue to complain about the poor state of Gladstone Road.
Yesterday, officials noted that they are seeking to apply thin overlays on the road as a temporary solution until the street’s transformation has been completed.
