By Earyel Bowleg

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said police have been asked to investigate issues over the construction of a hurricane shelter in Abaco.

Mr Davis said that the Disaster Reconstruction Authority had “engaged police officers” to see if there was any criminal conduct involving the shelter’s construction, though he did not specify what those allegations might be.

Mr Davis and other government officials toured the shelter on Friday, which is due to be completed by December 2024. The price has escalated to around $4m from an original cost of $2.2m.

There has been a series of delays in the construction. Mr Davis said on Friday: “The progress was slow. The reason why I visited the site is to get some explanation as to why it has sort of stalled and that explanation was given to me. I think you saw and heard some of the reasons why the progress has been as slow as it has been.

“The initial site on which the foundation rests was full of caverns. We saw where slabs of concrete had been poured yet still over cavernous areas and so there is a complete almost reworking of the site which took a lot of time I am advised.

“The engineers were pointing out to me… there was some terrible mistakes made at the beginning of that site and I am advised as well that the DRA has engaged police officers to look at what was going on to determine whether there was any criminal conduct that attended the exercise of what has happened.”

Mr Davis said the original design was for a shelter resilient up to 150mph winds, but that has now been increased so it can withstand winds of 250mph.

He added: “The remedial work, the corrective work that was necessary to ensure that the foundation was solid, correcting and filling in the caverns that they found, doing a proper geotechnical study on how the ground lay, that also increased the cost, I think they’re now saying, it looks like it’s escalating to around $4m.”

Christopher Symonette, the project manager, said workers have been building now for around a year and a half.

“We ran into significant delays after we had discovered there was some stuff in the foundation that was not done correctly. We had to mediate that work, get up to speed and move on with the new construction to upgrade the centre for 250mph wind.”

As for the capacity of the shelter, he told reporters: “It’s designed to seat comfortably 250 but you know in a hurricane you can get more people in so they have systems, water systems and bathroom facilities that actually accommodate more people.”