By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER several delays, major work for the Village Road Improvement Project is finally completed, marking the end of a long, frustrating journey for motorists and business owners in the area.

However, several weeks of minor works remain to be completed, including signage, striping and traffic lights. 

Albrion Symonette, Jr, resident engineer of the Village Road Improvement Project, told reporters yesterday that paving of the road was completed.

 The only thing left for contractors to do, he said, is a few minor works, which includes installing signage in the area along with traffic signals and repairing sidewalks that may have been damaged during the course of construction.

 “We’ve achieved substantial completion on the Village Road Improvement Project, which means that we have completed the contract pavement. So, the underground works are completed, the pavement works are complete,” Mr Symonette said during a press conference at the site yesterday.

 “What we have left to do includes striping work, signage work, as well as traffic signals so our intention is over the next few weeks to install the signage, install the striping, install signals, and to also ensure that we reinstate anything that was damaged during the course of the work. So sidewalks, curbs, walls and such were damaged.”

 Mr Symonette could not give a definite timeline for the remaining work’s completion, but said it should take another few weeks to finish.

 “We do not have a definitive timeline at the moment because we are waiting for the shipment of some items, primarily the traffic signal equipment,” he added. “There have been some global supply chain issues that have pushed the procurement date back for those traffic signals significantly, so we are looking to hopefully see those in a few weeks’ time.”

 The completion date for the Village Road project was initially scheduled for September last year, but the deadline was missed and shifted to December before moving to January and then February.

 Businesses in Village Road have previously lamented the shifting deadlines and have since requested an incentives package from the government to revive their businesses which they claimed suffered losses by the year-long roadworks.

 In terms of future repairs, Mr Symonette was unable to guarantee there won’t be any road digging by utility companies in the months ahead.

 However, he said: “We do our endeavour best to minimise and mitigate the future potential or need for it so what we’ve done is during the course of the works, we’ve incorporated a lot of underground works, wherein we have said ‘okay, we want to take this additional scope and do it now to prevent the urgent or the automatic need to go into the road.’

“So, there’s never a guarantee, but we do our best to mitigate. What we’ve actually done is install conduits across the road so in the event, a utility company needed to cross the road rather than excavating the road, they’re able to use those spare ducts which they have actually used already.

 “There have already been instances on Village Road where we’ve used the spare ducts to avoid having to excavate the roadway.”

 The project has a price tag of $6.4m and according to Mr Symonette yesterday, it remains on budget.