Traffic congestion and danger in this small island is being compounded by the increase in 40 ft. container movements and long fuel trucks traversing our narrow streets, as they head for developments around the island.
The danger which looms ahead as the tourist season begins and tours and leisure activities place taxis, rental cars and walking tourists, school children and adults, go about their affairs in St. John’s and around the island.
Added to the existing big traffic without rules and routes, there are plans to abandon the fuel line which runs aviation fuel from WIOC to VC Bird Airport because we failed to maintain it, and now replace it with fuel trucks.
Not only is this a disgrace re maintenance of this expensive but necessary means of transferring flammable and dangerous aircraft fuel, but the danger posed by a fuel truck accident with possible fire on our island of wooden buildings and pedestrian traffic is unthinkable.
In this 21 century we find ourselves in Antigua in a retarded mode of operation, where consciousness and advance thinking with which we developed our industries over sixty years ago is being replaced by 19 century methodologies.
For many years there have been complaints from the yachting community for better fueling facilitation which would require fuel storage at Dockyard.
Mega yachts which are attracted to the up-market facilities at our Nelson’s Dockyard have to wait days for uplift of fuel while 5- and 7-gallon trucks race between WIOC and English Harbour to effect a 50,000 gal. uplift on one yacht. St. Marten is supplying fuel to our Yachts in deals which leave Antigua’s pockets short.
All of these failures of administration create their own trickle-down problems which could bring the development of this island to a standstill.
All we need is for one of those long fuel trucks to have a serious accident on a crowded street and worse if it ignites in a village where our wooden buildings proliferate!
The time has come to create routes for these long and unwieldly vehicles which we must use to transport product to the development sites.
Further we must move to establish fuel storage at English Harbour for our yachts, keeping our roads safe, and retaining those fuel dollars in Antigua & Barbuda. And it is imperative that WIOC become forward thinking and safety conscious and fix the ill-maintained pipeline to carrying aviation fuel to the airport.
The idea of permanent truck transport of aviation fuel is a backward move into dangerous and ignorant time long past and not in keeping with ‘economic powerhouse’ expectations.
We recognize that while the pipeline is repaired or replaced, trucks will have to be used to fill the gap, but the country cannot retard its progressive fuel moves by making permanent this foolish short-sighted and dangerous road transfer of highly flammable fuel.
Our development must be conscious of the pitfalls of maintenance failure and the loss of life and livelihood which careless stop gap measures can cause in small unregulated countries.
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WIOC had already installed some infrastructure to create a new fuel line to the airport along the existing route. What would be more sensible is to create a holding facility up north in the vicinity of shell beach marina. Pipeline offshore for the boats delivering aviation fuel
WIOC needs to adopt an entrepreneur- Shell Beach Marina – and expand the pipeline over the rocky platform that fronts the Shell Beach Bay Area. The service could easily support both ends of the airport with a sub-station.
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