By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

SOME Eleuthera businesses say it is a waste of money to repair or rebuild the Glass Window Bridge and it would be better to build a causeway on the Bahama-bank side instead.

Tony Bethel, owner/operator of Big Rock Bar and Restaurant, told Tribune Business: “I feel like repairing what’s there now is a waste of time. I think we need to try concentrate on doing a causeway on the lower side.

“They have spent millions of dollars on repairing that bridge in the past.

“It would be better to build a causeway because the Glass Window is dangerous to go past if you have a rage on, then it has to be closed. But if you have a causeway you don’t have to close it. A lot of tourists come down from North Eleuthera and they can’t come because the bridge is closed, or they have to go out and its difficult for them to go out.”

 “Then when that happens you have to get on a boat and be ferried around the bridge and that is a huge inconvenience.”

 Mr Bethel was responding to news that the government is about to spend $35m in repairing the bridge.

 Works Minister Desmond Bannister 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 a new bridge some 60 feet west of the current location.

 Mr Bannister said the government is also aiming to create “a world-renowned tourist destination” at the site. Besides allowing visitors to see and contrast the normally rougher Atlantic waters with the calm Caribbean side, he added it would also provide a focal point for Bahamian entrepreneurs to sell their wares to tourists.

 Gerald Stuart, owner/operator of Freedom Tours in Eleuthera, said: “They need to clarify if they are repairing the old bridge or building a new bridge. That needs to be made clear. Because if they are repairing the old bridge that is a waste of time and money and anything you build there is going to be destroyed by the water. They would be better off if they put a bridge or a causeway on the bank-side, the Bahama-bank side.

“If you’re going to spend $35m put in the work for a permanent structure, which is going to be our low level bridge on the bank and it will be destroyed. So why waste the taxpayer’s money?”

 Mr Stuart added: “The bridge is good for a walking path when the weather is good, but when the weather is bad you can also be on the bank side and watch the water go over that bridge, but it has to be a decent distance of about 300 feet from the existing bridge across the water.

 He said at least twice a year the bridge is a “no man’s land” and impassable and unsafe. Despite the danger some tourists continue to try their luck at climbing the rocks by the bridge.