• DPM: ‘Most ambitious bridge build’ yet

• Says construction to start in early 2022

• Water battle a ‘national embarrassment’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The government’s $30m-$35m Glass Window Bridge replacement will combine “the most ambitious bridge building project” with “a world-famous tourist attraction”, the deputy prime minister revealed yesterday.

Desmond Bannister, the deputy prime minister, told the Eleuthera Business Outlook conference that construction on the vital transportation artery would begin in early 2022 with financing phased over a period of three years in successive budgets.

Affirming that the bridge has needed to be replaced “for many, many years”, he added that of the three options presented to the government it had chosen one that will locate the replacement some 60 feet west of the current version.

Revealing plans to ensure it was more than just a mere bridge, Mr Bannister said the government is also aiming to create “a world-renowned tourist destination” at the site with the Glass Window Bridge Park. Besides allowing visitors to see and contrast the normally rougher Atlantic waters with the calm Caribbean side, he added that it would also provide a focal point for Bahamian entrepreneurs to sell their wares to tourists.

The deputy prime minister said the $2.803m completion of the bridge between Spanish Wells and Russell Island, as well as new bridges and repairs in Long Island, Andros and Abaco, had “led to considerable reflection on my part” as to how the government can maintain and develop such vital infrastructure to “the highest standards of safety”.

Admitting that many Family Island bridges have been “poorly maintained”, Mr Bannister said the Government was now poised to take on “the most ambitious bridge building project in The Bahamas” yet with the $30m-$35m replacement of Eleuthera’s Glass Window Bridge.

“The Glass Window Bridge is in poor condition. It’s needed replacing for many, many years, but it’s been a challenge getting funds in the Budget.... When the weather’s bad it’s a challenge to get across that bridge,” he added, with single land traffic reducing capacity.

The Government had commissioned “detailed engineering studies” on the options available to it, with Mr Bannister disclosing that it had been keen not to “lose the characteristics” that made the Glass Window Bridge unique. Future traffic studies and economic viability assessments, as well as an evaluation of climate change impacts/mitigation and environmental and social issues was also performed.

Placing the new bridge on “the same alignment” as the existing one, which is currently elevated 40 feet above sea level, was ruled out due to the disruption construction would cause to traffic flows. Instead, the Government examined three options - a new bridge that was either places 25 feet west; 60 feet west; or 110 feet west of the existing structure.

“After careful analysis by our technical officers along with the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), the preferred option was number two - 60 feet west of the existing bridge,” Mr Bannister said. He added that the impact of sea waves would be “completely mitigated” with the new structure, while only land-based piers are needed to support it, meaning no marine-based construction is required.

While constructing “a safe durable, bridge” that “protects the beautiful scenery of Eleuthera”, the deputy prime minister promised that the entire area would become “an awesome site for Eleuthera”.

He explained: “We want to benefit the people of The Bahamas and make it a tourist attraction; create a world-famous tourist attraction..... It’s important to develop that site into a world-renowned tourist destination by itself. Eleuthera is the fourth biggest contributor to the economy with 60,000 arrivals every year. We have to do something very special there.

“The development of the Glass Window Bridge is going to convert that existing site into a special tourist destination that makes a difference. It will create new businesses, new jobs and new opportunities for entrepreneurs in Eleuthera. 

“We will create the Glass Window Bridge Park at the site and develop a park facility that attracts tourists for the scenic views, authentic local products and local foods and local foods. That site, when completed, is going to increase tourist expenditure among local Eleutherans and the local economy; it won’t go straight into hotels”.

Mr Bannister, meanwhile, branded Aqua Design (Bahamas) decision to cut-off the water supply to central Eleuthera residents as “a national embarrassment” although he did not comment directly on the Supreme Court verdict the company won last week against the Water & Sewerage Corporation.

Referring to the Government and Corporation’s Supreme Court battles with Aqua Design, he added: “At times they turned the water off. For me, it was a national embarrassment to see that happen.” However, he said the two sides had since “come to terms” where the Corporation will develop and manage a “brand new reverse osmosis plant” for the area.

The Supreme Court last week blasted the Water & Sewerage Corporation as “the author of its own demise” over $644,000 in unpaid bills that resulted in water supply to central Eleuthera residents being cut-off for several days last October.

Justice Indra Charles, in a scathing August 6, 2021, verdict found that the state-owned water supplier’s “silence and/or evasiveness” on how it planned to pay these debts gave Aqua Design little choice but to cease supplying the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s customers from its reverse osmosis plant at the former US naval base.

Suggesting that the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s inaction had “broken the camel’s back”, Justice Charles said the sums owed to Aqua Design would likely have continued to soar if the latter had not taken “such a drastic step” of shutting off water supply. She added that the utility “continues to be delinquent”, requiring the Supreme Court to order that it pay a further $454,195 to Aqua Design while the parties awaited her ruling.

Justice Charles dismissed the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s case in its entirety and found completely in favour of Aqua Design’s contention that it had “properly executed” the termination of the water supply agreement between the two parties for Central Eleuthera. She also awarded costs to Aqua Design, which has potentially saddled Corporation customers (and Bahamian taxpayers) with a $221,265 legal bill.