Parliament rubber stamps US$46 M roadworks loan

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A resolution has been moved in Parliament which authorises the government to borrow US $45.8 million from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for its road rehabilitation and upgrade programme.

The funds will be used to fix 1.4 kilometers of Anchorage Road, 14 kilometers of Sir Sydney Walling Highway, 2.9 kilometers of Old Parham Road, 9.45 kilometers of Valley Road north and associated drainage and infrastructure.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne, as minister of finance, authorised Senator Lennox Weston to sign the loan agreement dated August 21, 2017, between the government of Antigua and Barbuda and the CDB. The government, in Parliament today, retroactively approved the loan.

Browne said the majority of the roads in Antigua and Barbuda “are bad” and require significant redevelopment.

He said the United Progressive Party (UPP) administration spent over a billion dollars on the roads, and some three years later they are is disrepair.

“We are now tackling the issue of the roads, and I can guarantee the people of Antigua and Barbuda that within the next six to 12 months that you will see a significant improvement in the roads in Antigua and Barbuda,” Browne said.

Browne noted that several miles of concrete roads were recently completed on Barbuda-from River to Codrington, which cost the government $9 million.

He said his administration will spend, within the next year, $200 million on redeveloping the roads in Antigua.

The prime minister said a budgetary amount of $20 million will also be spent to redevelop roads within the various communities.

“Recently the Cabinet made approximately $12 million to the Ministry of Public Works to supplement the amounts that were appropriated, so within the next three months we hope to spend $20 million, and this is out of budgetary amounts to improve the roads in the communities.

“We have this particular facility which we are approving now which is almost $125 million from the CDB, and there is also the $50 million which is funded by the British government, that’s a grant,” Browne said.

Browne noted that the design work has started, and that a Bahamian company has been contracted to do the road works which should commence in December.

He added that operators of heavy duty equipment and unemployed young men along with skilled individuals would be required to work on the road programme.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. where is the money that was given by the UK government 20 million £ ,is that still on the books . hope they mean rebuilding the roads and not the customary patch and patch…….

  2. I’m hoping that when they rebuild the roads, or build new roads they realise that you’ve got to put in a proper Base to ensure the roads don’t sink. Proper drainage needs to be on the roads, the roads NEEDS TO BE MARKED WITH THE CORRECT PAINT and, THERE NEEDS TO BE PROPER LIGHTENING ON THE ROADS!!! How can you paint a road today, and 2 weeks later the paint ready off? Or the paint don’t reflect on the night? Or the message paint is to reflect to the driver is inaccurate?

    For too long our government have been playing politics with road development and safety.

    Every year we pay taxes to drive on roads that don’t exist in the state that they should be. They’re times I really feel like we live in a banana Republic

    Can you imagine the possibility of a having less accidents at night, if the roads were well lit and marked?

  3. Lord help us this is the worst antigua Labour party government we ever see in antigua the country is running down so bad even the blind man can feel it

  4. PEOPLE NEED TO SEND A LETTER TO THE UK GOVERNMENT ASKING ABOUT THE GRANT THEY GAVE FOR ROAD REPAIRS ONLY. …..WHERE IS THE MONEY….Y DO WE HAVE TO BORROW MORE MONEY AND WHO WOULD BE OVERSEEING THIS MONEY,DONT TRUST THE PEOPLE WHICH COMPANY WILL BE GETTING THESE ROAD CONTRACTS AND HOW DO WE KNOW THAT KNOW MINISTERS WOULD NOT BE GETTING ANY HAND OUT…..THIS MONEY NEEDS TO END UP ON THE ROAD AND NOT IN ANY BODY POCKETS …JUST TIRED OF THESE POLITIANS
    ….

  5. this country needs some real investigations who is behind the E BOOKS ,Y IS IT NOT IN USE ALREADY. ..WHO IS THE PROVIDER …WHO BENEFITED FROM THIS INITIATIVE

  6. How many times must all the governments in the history of A&B attempt to fix the roads??? Can’t they just do it right one time so that they only have to do maintenance later on??? Sheesh!

  7. Hmm
    $45.8 million dollars to rebuild 17.43 miles of undivided 2 lane road.
    Thats a bit more than $2.6 million a mile
    From wikipeadia:
    According to the New York State Thruway Authority,[68] some sample per-mile costs to construct multi-lane roads in several US northeastern states were:

    Connecticut Turnpike – $3,449,000 per mile
    New Jersey Turnpike – $2,200,000 per mile
    Pennsylvania Turnpike (Delaware Extension) – $1,970,000 per mile
    Northern Indiana Toll Road – $1,790,000 per mile
    Garden State Parkway – $1,720,000 per mile
    Massachusetts Turnpike – $1,600,000 per mile
    Thruway, New York to Pennsylvania Line – $1,547,000 per mile
    Ohio Turnpike – $1,352,000 per mile
    Pennsylvania Turnpike (early construction) – $736,000 per mile

    Perhaps we need a tendering process for this work. We need good roads, but why are we paying for a multi lane highway and getting less than half?

    looks like some people are going to get rich at our expense

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