Community Consultations held Ahead of Construction of East Coast Road Project
Ahead of the start of construction that will transform the road network in the East of Dominica community consultations were recently held in Sineku and Castle Bruce to provide information, and hear the concerns, suggestions and queries of residents’ who will benefit from and be impacted by the activities there.
The XCD 127 million East Coast Road reconstruction is part of the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural Modernisation and Kalinago Upliftment, and is administered by a Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and supported by CREAD. The road works will include the sections between Bois Diable and Castle Bruce, and Castle Bruce to Hatton Garden which is approximately 30km. Those areas are particularly vulnerable to heavy rainfall conditions and interventions will include the construction of new bridges and culverts, rehabilitation of roadways, construction of sidewalks, slope stabilization and improved drainage plus street lighting amongst other safety features.
Both community meetings were very well attended and residents were fully engaged and optimistic about the benefits of the project to their communities and the numerous economic opportunities this project will bring, especially employment both during and after completion..
Residents were able to hear directly from their Parliamentary Representatives, Minister Hon. Octavia Alfred and Minister Hon. Cozier Frederick, who confirmed the Government’s commitment to improving the lives of the residents and the resilience of their communities and protecting their livelihoods.
They also heard from the various members of the technical teams (Contractors, Consultant, PIU & World Bank IST et al.) about the scope of the activities to be undertaken, their associated durations, and their plan of execution, but most notably the stakeholders means, access and process of grievance redress mechanism as was clearly outlined by Mr. Kirk Brown of the World Bank IST team.
In addressing both consultations, CREAD’s Chief Executive Officer, Francine Baron noted that the Climate Resilience Recovery Plan (CRRP) has as one of its targets that 100% of primary roads and bridges are able to be open within three days of an extreme weather event. In remarking on some of the main features of the East Coast Road Project in particular, the slope stabilisation, better road alignment and widening, redesigned bridges and culverts, as well as improvement to road pavement and drainage, the CEO stated that: “All of these changes will increase the attractiveness of the East Coast area, and bring more visitors and economic opportunities to the East,” .
The PIU headed by Collin Guiste has been working assiduously on delivery of this Project and he joined CREAD’s Senior Capital Projects Manager Glen Laville on DBS’ Talking Point to provide further details and increase awareness to the public on this important, transformative project which is made possible with loan funds provided by the World Bank. Listen in below.
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