Sewerage-related roadwork continued in East End this week, and portions of the highway were closed as a result. (Photo: ZARRIN TASNIM AHMED)

Roadwork is ongoing following the resumption of the East End/Look Sewerage Project, which has faced decades of delays as successive administrations promised to connect the village to a treatment plant in Paraquita Bay.

However, the completion target for the project — which has started and stopped repeatedly in recent years — remains unclear even after government officials gave an hour-long update on Tortola-wide sewerage works last week.

“We’re hoping to put an end to [the project] finally,” Communications and Works Permanent Secretary Ronald Smith-Berkeley said during a Sept. 23 panel discussion broadcast by Government Information Services. “We’re in the process of rehabilitating the Paraquita Bay plant, and hopefully this will come together nicely so that we … bring the sewage to the plant to be treated.”

Duane Fraites — the ministry’s acting chief of infrastructural planning, research and development — provided more details.

“We’ve completed all the lateral line installations [in East End],” he said. “Now we’re turning our attention to reinstating the roads, raising the manholes, so that we have a nice, smooth flowing road surface.”

However, the officials stopped short of promising a completion date.

Project history

The East End/Long Look Sewerage Project aims to give the village its first public sewer system by connecting it to a treatment plant in Paraquita Bay that was built seven years ago but has never been used.

The project is part of larger plans for a national sewage system that date back at least to 1974, but that were hampered by decades of delays that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars due to scrapped plans and subpar work that had to be restarted numerous times.

In 2010, the Virgin Islands Party-led government awarded a no-bid contract to the United Kingdom-based company Biwater, which resulted in Biwater’s completion of a water plant and two sewerage treatment plants: one at Burt Point and one in Paraquita Bay.

The Burt Point facility near Road Town started processing sewage in late 2015. However, the Paraquita Bay plant, which was completed around the same time, has never been used because government didn’t lay the pipes to connect it to East End, mainly due to a lack of funding.

At least twice, the government transferred money away from the EE/LL project to another purpose: first to the new Dr. Orlando Smith Hospital and then to the pier park project.

Irma damage

The then-National Democratic Party government restarted work once again in 2017, but damage from Hurricane Irma dashed hopes for its completion.

The previous VIP-led administration vowed in October 2020 to restart works, with then-Premier Andrew Fahie pledging to award at least 40 petty contracts — each worth less than $100,000 — as part of $6,142,500 allocated to complete the project.

In August 2021, the first pipes were laid from the main pump in Paraquita Bay to Fat Hogs Bay, then-Transportation, Works and Utilities Minister Kye Rymer said at the time.

Then in February, more contracts were awarded to start a “four-phase” project that began with the installation of 1,400 metres of lines and manholes from Parham Town to Long Swamp, Mr. Rymer said at the time.

In July, Mr. Fraites said that the project would continue to be carried out in phases, with the current phase focusing on the area between Fat Hogs Bay and Long Swamp. He affirmed last week that all lateral lines connecting to the Paraquita Bay plant have been laid.

EE roadwork

On Friday, related roadwork began between Vanterpool Estates bus stop and Fine Foods,according to a government press release. Over the weekend, although work was scheduled to take place between the bus stop and the entrance to a local car rental agency, there was little action.

On Monday afternoon, workers were excavating the portion of the road in front of Fine Foods. They used heavy equipment and shovels to dig out portions of the road in front of One Mart Supermarket.

Work continued with excavation between the junction adjacent to Nature’s Way extending to Fat Hogs Bay in East End.

The government advised motorists that the road would be closed from Friday until Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. to facilitate the roadwork.

Road Town, CGB

During the GIS broadcast last week, officials also provided updates on other sewerage work in the territory.

“We’ve done some major sewage work in the Road Town area, especially as it relates to trying to make the necessary room to connect the Social Security project up in Joes Hill,” Mr. Smith- Berkeley said. “We’ve also done some work to connect the new high school into the system.”

He added that in the “not too distant future” there will be a better sewage system throughout the entire territory.

Road Town works

Mr. Fraites said the Road Town sewage project is 98 percent complete, aside from a lateral line connection that needs to be laid down between Main Street and Flemming Street.

“We tried our best to ensure traffic was passable [between Rite Way and Mellow Moods],”he said. “Generally speaking, we’re happy that we’re able to go through the process. I know some people were a bit inconvenienced, and that was something we understood would happen, but we were able to get through that fairly quickly.”

Burt Point plant

The sewage treatment plant at Burt Point — which was knocked offline in Hurricane Irma about two years after it became partially operational — is also expected to be repaired soon.

In May, Mr. Rymer told the House of Assembly that government had drafted a contract worth more than $1.4 million to repair the facility and bring it back online.

Asked by Opposition Leader Julian Fraser for a projected completion date, Mr. Rymer said at the time that once the initial paperwork is finished he expected the plant to be recommissioned in six months.

However, he did not indicate when that paperwork would be finalised. Attempts to reach Mr. Berkeley-Smith were not immediately successful.