Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill has offered assistance in finding workers for the contracting firm that was awarded the contract to rehabilitate the Leguan Stelling, after the company complained of having an insufficient labour force to complete the project in a timely manner.
Edghill recently visited the construction site. “The work here needs to be accelerated,” he remarked.
“This contract should be up in June and I have said to the contractor…”double up your workforce”,” Edghill explained.
But he noted that the contractor said “he can’t get workers to work.”
Edghill said he then informed the contractor to “send us the specifications of what you’re looking for, we’ll put it on our Facebook page and send it to the Board of Industrial Training, may be some of the people we have trained, would be prepared to come and work on this project.”
“So, we wanna see a doubling up, we wanna see this work moving faster. It’s not what we want it to be right now…we should have been way ahead of this but it is much improved.”
According to Edghill, “even though it is not what we would like it to be, it’s a mark improvement of what was happening here. So basically, we’ve started to see light at the end of the tunnel and that is a good thing.”
The Leguan Stelling is being constructed to the tune of $413 million. The rehabilitation of the stelling is being undertaken by S. Maraj Contracting Services which signed the contract in September 2018, according to a report from the Department of Public Information (DPI).
The report explained that the project consists of two components geared at achieving the complete rehabilitation of the timber structure, and the expansion of the stelling platform through the construction of the reinforced concrete stelling that will be adjacent and adjoining to the existing structure.
Moreover, it was explained that the new reinforced concrete section of the stelling will be constructed on 228 prestressed concrete piles and will measure some 160ft by 130ft.
A new link-span bridge will be incorporated into the structure. It will also facilitate the mooring of the ferry, the off-loading of commodities and the ingress and egress of passengers and vehicles.
Safety elements will be incorporated such as lighting, and safety rails on both the rehabilitated intersection and the reinforced concrete northern extension of the stelling.
The project also caters for the construction of an admin building which will be utilised by the staff of the Transport and Harbours Department to essentially undertake and oversee the operation.
