NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (September 24, 2014) — Residents of Hamilton Road have been assured that road works in their area would commence shortly.
The promise came from Junior Minister in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) responsible for Communications and Works Hon. Troy Liburd when he was a guest on Inside Government, an NTv Channel 8 weekly programme which aired on September 23, 2013.
“I want the public to know that in terms of roads… we have had some concerns being raised about the project at Hamilton. I want the people of Hamilton and the people of Nevis by extension to know that the road will be done in short order; it will be something that you can be proud of,” he said.
To the residents of Brown Pasture, Mr. Liburd said that road project was nearing completion and pointed to other areas also marked for road repairs or construction.
“The people of Brown Pasture who have waited for a while for their road to be completed, we are nearing completion and I have been on site and I like what I have seen and so works are coming,” he said.
“I also want to say that there are some other areas that we are looking at. We are looking at the areas of Brown Hill, Hanley’s Road. There’s the area where the affordable housing was done in Cotton Ground, we are looking to do some road upgrades. We are actually looking to build some roads into that area. There is also an area in Garners where there is another affordable housing project that we are looking to do some roads into that area and there are many other areas that we are looking to do road upgrades,” he said.
Meantime, Minister Liburd disclosed that plans were afoot to increase the capacity of the Public Works Department and once that was done, it would be better placed to deploy a greater volume of road works at a more rapid pace. As such, an upgrade of the equipment pool was critical.
“At this point, we are looking to probably get in some more equipment. What we found is the equipment that is there to do roads, I think we have two large rollers, a pneumatic roller. We now have a grader which is a very good addition. We have backhoes and we have an excavator that needs some work that we are working with.
“What we are trying to do or what my policy is – I am trying to make a shift to where we can buy some small equipment. Equipment that is more nimble that we can get them from place to place without having the roller. I don’t know how many of you have seen the roller driving on the Main Road. It’s not something that it’s designed to do; it’s not something that I want to see. So we are looking to get in some equipment that will be more nimble that Public Works can pull around and get to the different areas to do their patching and other aesthetic work on the asphalt. That way I think it would increase their capacity,” he explained.
In the area of staff development, Mr. Liburd, an Engineer by profession said training was on the cards for some workers and staffing has been increased.
“We now have three engineers at Pubic Works. I think there are two Architects working there, and there is a Quantity Surveyor so we have been adding to the staff. I myself was a part of the staff only a few months ago, so I understand what is there and I think I have a good concept of the type of staffing that we need.
“We are also looking into training for some of the staff that have been there before, some of the guys who actually go out and do the asphalt work and do the concrete work and so on. We are looking to help them to upgrade their skills so that the level of work that we get from them and the level of professionalism that we get from them would be very becoming and the people can have something to be proud of,” he said.
However, in response to how receptive the staff had been to new innovations Mr. Liburd said it was a gradual process.
“Change is what it is and sometimes change has to come gradually because people are never receptive to changing the way they work. If you are accustomed to doing something all the time and that’s what you know then that is what you want to do but we will work with everybody until we get them to where we want them to be,” he said.
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