Question 1
Mr. Speaker, would the Honourable Minister of Communications and Works please provide for this Honourable House copies of the agreements signed with LIAT, American Eagle and Road Town Fast Ferry for the provision of airlift and ferry transportation from St. Thomas to Tortola, respectively?

Answer
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to provide this Honourable House with a copy of the LIAT agreement, and to inform that this is the only Agreement Government has entered into.

Question 2
Mr. Speaker, would the Honourable Minister of Communications and Works please inform this Honourable House of:
a) the value of the contract to break down the following structures at the West End Ferry Terminal:  the old arrival lounge, the bulkhead and the platform on which the old arrival lounge stood;
b) the reason for issuing a contract to carry out the works outlined in (a); and
c) the status of the platform after the building was removed as well as the status of the piles?

Answers
a) Mr. Speaker, part a) of the Question can best be answered by telling you the total cost of the works involved in the following manner:

I. There was a contract for the actual demolition of the structures as specified, in the amount of $79,744.45.
II. There was Commercial Dive Services in the amount of $36,410, of which $19,508.90 represents the cost of a turbidity curtain, which shall remain the property of the Authority and will be used in the future on other projects
III. Consulting Engineering Services - $11,260.0
IV. Relocation expenses - rent for two months for two families $ 9,000.0
V. Quantity Surveying Services - $1,200.0

Total Cost $137,614.45

b) Mr. Speaker, the reason for issuing a contract to carry out the works as outlined in (a) is that the building was declared to be unsafe by our consultants in a report received on January 30th 2005.  Consequently Mr. Speaker, the Building was abandoned, and posed a safety hazard.

c) Mr. Speaker, I am afraid I am unable to speak to this question with any degree of specificity, but I can surmise however, that given the Engineers evaluation of the structure, and their subsequent recommendations, if it was the intention of the demolition contractor to demolish the entire structure, then whatever was left after the building was removed could not have been much to speak of.

Question 3
Mr. Speaker, would the Honourable Minister of Communications and Works please inform this Honourable House of the time-frame for the replacement of the bulkhead at the West End Ferry Terminal so that the vessels (ferry providers between the USVI and the BVI, Jost Van Dyke and West End, and water taxis and yachts) which normally utilise the dock will no longer be inconvenienced?

Answers
Mr. Speaker, I stand to be corrected only by the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, but the entire area where the Building was removed from, including the platform, was declared unsafe.  As such Mr. Speaker, to speak of depravation is somewhat misleading.

As to when the Bulkhead will be rebuilt Mr. Speaker, depends upon whether Government wish to avoid risking the same knee-jerk quick fix of the last Government which ended up becoming a long term eyesore, and err on the side of caution by being cautious and doing a proper assessment. 

That being said Mr. Speaker, the most honest answer I can offer at this point is that we are working towards a solution, and that in the near future we can report more realistically.

Question 4
Mr. Speaker, would the Honourable Minister of Communications and Works please advise this Honourable House if and when Government intends to remove the landmark roundabout at Upper Road Town and replace it with traffic lights, and what would be the advantage of doing so?

Answer
Mr. Speaker, while it has been a consistent finding of all Traffic studies that the Roundabout is the single greatest impediment to the smooth flow of Traffic in the Road Town area, and that advice to the Ministry is the sooner it is removed the better, this Government has every intention to explore means of making the Roundabout functional.

To that end Mr. Speaker, we are going as far as to experiment with a series of Traffic Lights at the Roundabout to show the people of the Territory, that we are as committed to preservation as far as practical as long as progress is not impeded.