Minister: Devon Spring Road Retaining Wall
Preliminary works to the Devon Spring Road Retaining Wall Project on South Road in Devonshire has commenced by technical staff of the Ministry of Public Works, Minister of Public Works Michael Weeks said.
Minister Weeks full statement follows below:
Good Morning!
Today I am very pleased to announce that preliminary works to the Devon Spring Road Retaining Wall Project at 63 South Road, Devonshire, has commenced by technical staff of the Ministry of Public Works with the objective of making the wall safe for residents and the public and re-opening the road to traffic.
Without question, we recognize that residents and the public have been inconvenienced by the delay in constructing the wall.
By way of brief background, the public will be aware that there have been ongoing issues regarding the retaining wall and dating back to 2003. However each time we were presented with challenges, which mainly involved an impasse on the design of the wall, this Government did its due diligence to work with the land owners via the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Department of Planning to find an amicable resolution to the issue.
Admittedly the wheels of progress can move rather slowly; however our priority was ensuring that we were able to provide the safest possible structure for this area’s residents.
And I am pleased that as a Government we have remained steadfast in our determination to resolving the challenges and I am even more pleased to note that taking the time to work collaboratively with the landowners has resulted in a secure and adequate wall design.
Ladies and gentlemen, in April this year, construction documents were approved and this past July a Request For Proposal was issued.
Last month, a contract was awarded to a local firm, which will see job creation opportunities for local construction workers.
Senior technical officers of the Highways section of the Ministry have met with property owners Ronny and Ricky Lopez and agreed to not start the main construction phase of the project until after the Christmas holiday season so as to not disrupt a planned block party for the area and kenneling of pets during the holidays.
However we wanted to waste no time in getting started and to facilitate the pre-construction work the following steps have been taken or being implemented shortly:
CableVision removed their lines from the wall section last week;
BTC will remove their lines by the end of the year and possibly connect from the roadway to the manhole;
Belco will relocate their transformer box to the eastern end of the parking lot to clear up the space for the wall footing;
There is a well onsite that will need to be adjusted and the Ministry of Public Works is working out the details for it to be constructed as excavation takes place.
Brown and Company will present the Highways section with a steel reinforcing schedule and asking for a deposit to order all the steel so that they can start at the end of January 2013 with construction. In the meantime prior to the block party, Brown & Co. is going to start clearing the vegetation of the rock cliff and utility diversions will be put in place to facilitate the works; and
The High Section will send out letters to notify the immediate property owners on Devon Springs Road that construction will formally commence towards the end of January 2013.
Finally, I think it’s very important to note that the Ministry was only prepared to go ahead with this project unless our criteria for an adequate wall design was met, as again, public safety was deemed paramount.
And we are more that satisfied that the new retaining wall will meet the needs of all the stakeholders involved.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to the landowners for their cooperation in working with us to move towards completing this project.
I also wish to thank local residents for their continued patience as work begins on addressing one of their outstanding concerns.
Thank you.
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Preliminary work has begun on the wall with…wait for it… …. TALK.
Nine years of batting the ball of responsibility back & forth & a couple weeks before the election progress has resulted in more talk.
Way to go PLP! Is that the best you all can come up with? Reminds me of the big cannons at the Punkin Chunkin in Delaware a few weeks ago. Sometimes things go wrong from the start. Pumkins go splat from the pressure of the air behind them & leave the gun muzzle in pieces instead of being hurled thousands of feet. They call the failure a pie.
Here it is called business as usual for the PLP.
Thanks but you’re about 9 years too late to be getting my vote. I hope the rest of my neighbors will agree with me and see that this is just a ploy to get last minute votes. I appreciate that the road will once again be useable, but come on, we’re not stupid.
So it was put through in an election year for contruction next year…..weeks is weak.
Gotta agree with you there he’s a joke
Ace Boy got the job…..with PLP its more of the same.
Who is paying for this wall? The owners of the private land or taxpayers? Is it a W & E project using a private construction company and if so why? The details are unclear.
Election time speech. However for the residence of that road it must be good news. They have waited long enough for this to be resolved.
I’m quite sure PLP will come up with a cure for cancer and world piece in the next two weeks as well.
Here is a puppet if ever there was one ….. Go out and tell them anything you can fool some of the people some of the time even if it does get FAST TRACKED to late with the games we have had enough of the armchair school boy politics
Why has it taken 9 years to decide that this road is not private property after all.
Does public works not have the staff, equipment, etc. to do the job rather than a private company who has to hire equipment etc.
@Time Passages, all sorts of miraacles will come to pass before December 17. Just you wait and see.
I don’t understand. I thought Brown and Company sold greeting cards, books and gifts. Are they now in the steel-retaining-wall business? Why has this gone to a private contractor? Is Works & Engineering no longer qualified for works and engineering? (Remembering the Great Wall of China that was built in Warwick). Seriously, does every bid have to go to Correia, DeSilva or Brown?
Oops…I forgot Lopes and Hunt…