ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, July 24th, 2012 -- Madam Speaker, as you and the Honorable Members of this House are aware; the Government has decided to extend the runway at the Terrence B. Lettsome International Airport as well as concurrent improvement/upgrade of the aircraft parking apron, the Passenger Terminal Building and adjacent development of an intermodal transportation facility which includes upgrade to the existing family islands cargo and passenger Ferry dock and private parking in this area. This will truly make for a holistic and integrated and planned development of the Beef Island -Trellis bay locale and redefine business and social opportunities and activities in this part of the Territory.
Madam Speaker, I am encouraged by the number of interests that has come in so far from around the world. The deadline for submission for the Expression of Interest (EOI) is July 25, 2012 and by that time we hope to have about 5 to 10 submissions, including a submission from the Government of Canada and interest has also been shown by the Government of China-through their international construction group operating in the Caribbean.
Madam Speaker, following receipt of the EOI on July 25th 2012 we move into the prequalification stage where all the submissions are evaluated based on the criteria delineated in the EOI. This process is expected to be completed by mid August, 2012 at which time we hope to have about 3 companies that will stand out and receive secured access to the Request for Proposal (RFP) currently being developed. These organizations will, on September 24th 2012, return proposals for the Design, Financing and Construction of the Intermodal Transportation Facility which includes the Runway Extension, at Beef Island.
Once evaluated and awarded-Design and Financial work will commence to produce detailed designs and put in place all financial arrangements for the entire development planned. This Design work for the Runway extension is expected to be substantially completed by December 2012 facilitating commencement of the construction in early 2013 of the Runway Extension and in the first quarter of 2013- the completion of designs and commencement of construction for aircraft parking apron and passenger terminal building upgrade.
Madam Speaker, My Ministry is in the process of sorting through all the staffing issues relative to this project. As you can imagine on a complex project- as we have -it will take a few teams working harmoniously to coordinate many activities to ensure that this project is delivered on time and on budget. I met with the GIS Officer on Friday who is expected to take up her position in the Ministry on August 9, 2012.
This, like all other positions, is critical to this project in that we need to make a real effort to keep the public properly informed as to our progress. We are also in the process of putting together the Project Administration Team ( which includes the Project technical team for design review, financial and project administration and Construction monitoring) , the Project Steering Committee (to ensure that all the over-arching issues and all stake-holder concerns including those of all constituencies amongst our local community are ventilated and resolved) and an Environmental Management Committee, to ensure that the project meets all environmental standards. Madam Speaker it is intended to seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification on this project. In that regard several energy reduction and conservation ideas are being explored.
Madam Speaker, The Ministry is currently working with the Town and Country Planning Department to ensure that all statutory requirements are met in a timely manner. In this regard the recently completed Impact Assessment Study is being discussed and reviewed with the T&CP this week to ensure all the guidelines that were identified and approved by that department during the scoping study are adequately studied, investigated and mitigated.
The preparation of Terms of Reference (TOR) for the geotechnical work, which is scheduled to be completed by September 21, 2012, is also being developed. Our Progress thus far looks good and we are on target to commence ground breaking by early 2013.
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