Commuters making their way to the western end of Tobago now have an alternative route.
This comes with the official opening of the Kilgwyn/Store Bay Local Road–Friendship Connector Road on Tuesday.
Though final costs are still being tallied, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine boasted that the newly constructed Kilgwyn/Store Bay Local Road–Friendship Connector Road was completed in a transparent manner. He said the new carriageway is a celebration for all of Tobago.
“This project started at 64–65 million dollars, and I expect that when the accounting officers do their tally and account for the setbacks, the times that the contractor could not work, and the variations that happened, that that cost will go up eventually. But we are very much prepared to be open in so far as what this costs.”
Chief Secretary Augustine pointed to the design–build–finance procurement model which was used to cover the cost of the project. He said the THA also requested that 80% of the work and materials be local.
Secretary of Infrastructure Trevor James praised the THA, as he highlighted that the expertise of staff was also used to complete the road infrastructure.
“We were able to use Division staff as project managers to manage this road — never heard of in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. In Trinidad, they had to put in place all kinds of companies — from NIDCO to MTS to NIPDEC — to bypass all kinds of things to get infrastructure done. In the THA, we employed Tobagonians and Trinbagonians to project manage this road.”
Not only will the road ease traffic flow with the new airport terminal, the Chief Secretary said the new road infrastructure will benefit the increased economic activity planned for the area.
“Can you imagine a marina in this area, motorsport in this area, waterpark in this area, farming in this area, some tourism development in this area? I want you to see the vision beyond the bush you see today, because when all of those things happen, we will then imagine the private jets landing at our airports, the mega yachts pulling up at the marina, the very expensive fancy cars coming off the ports and having only flat lands to drive on to get to their parking and designated areas to go racing — and the kind of economic activity we can generate.”
The road was constructed by California Stucco Company Limited.