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Written by Merv-Ann Thompson (WINN FM)

St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The government says after receiving a number of tenders in December 2018 for the continuation of Phase 2 of the island wide road rehabilitation project in the new year, the contract has been awarded and will be signed in short order

That’s according to Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Ian Liburd in an exclusive interview with WINN FM.

Liburd confirmed that negotiations are being finalized for the $40 million dollar project, and will continue to employ local contractors to upgrade the remaining 23 mile stretch of road from Keys travelling east to Challengers.

“An evaluation was done in terms of the tenders received and the evaluation report has come in, and the process is almost complete in respect of the negotiating with contractors that are identified as the contractors to move forward on each component. At the present for the island main road somewhere in the region of EC$40 million dollars. Again these are estimates and these are subject to final negotiations as well with the contractors. We want to start the project, like I said once the contracts are signed and we hope to sign them by mid January and then we start going and we mobilize by January 15. What we intend to do as well with the island main road is to continue along the lines as we did in the first phase where we ensured that there is input from local contractors along that 38 kilometers that’s remaining of the road.”

The minister further noted that contracts were also awarded for the mining of aggregate material that would be necessary to construct the upgraded road network. He said this was done so that material can be provided without much hindrance as large quantities will be needed.

According to Liburd, road works should be completed by year-end barring any hiccups in weather patterns over the coming months.

In October, road work was completed on the island main road between Camps and Challengers, which then saw contractors and engineers beginning work on the road in Canada Estate.

Meantime, other infrastructure projects will be ongoing simultaneously Old Road.