The government’s recent decision to scale down the territory’s urgently needed road-reconstruction plans may seem like bad news, but we would argue that more realistic ambitions are better public policy.
We’re also pleased that the Ministry of Communications and Works, which initially planned to manage a 38-mile road project on its own, has turned over the bulk of the work to the Recovery and Development Agency, which has repeatedly shown that it knows how to tender and deliver projects on time and within budget.
Since the RDA took over last year, officials clearly have been honing project plans behind the scenes. They recently announced that the initial nine sections of roadwork will be cut back to five, covering Fort Hill, Joes Hill, Windy Hill, Ridge Road and Pockwood Pond.
The modification appears to mean that four other road sections — West End to Road Town, Virgin Gorda’s Nail Bay and Lee roads, and a section on Jost Van Dyke — may not be funded for now.
This is a harsh blow to people who rely on the excluded networks — especially sister island residents whose needs are frequently shunted aside when scarce infrastructure dollars are allocated.
But too often, Virgin Islands officials hold ribbon-cuttings and launch grand public projects before securing funding and formulating a realistic strategy. Then, when resources are exhausted, unfinished works are suddenly abandoned with no explanation.
Such blunders lower public confidence, waste money and serve no one.
Such history likely would have repeated itself under the government’s original plan to construct 38 miles of road over 14 months under the ministry’s supervision.
Indeed, that effort went off track shortly after the ministry issued a vague tender invitation in October 2023. The protracted tender process that followed drew only one bidder, whose proposed price of $37 million did not include the cost of asphalt and other materials.
After that bid came in, opposition member Marlon Penn convincingly estimated the actual project cost at around $100 million, a figure the ministry never disputed. Clearly, the funding was not available: In fact, the entire capital expenditure allotment for the territory’s 2024 budget amounted to only $77 million.
Now with a reduced scope, the project makes a lot more sense. And given the many questions that surrounded the previous tender process under the ministry, we are glad to see the RDA now starting a new one.
But major questions remain.
How many miles of roads will now be built? Will the reconstruction be managed as one big project or five individual ones? Who will carry out the works? And when?
The RDA has referred such questions to the ministry, which has not provided further details. As the project is put out to bid again, we urge officials to honestly answer these questions and keep the public updated.
Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley has said that roadwork projects will receive more than a third of the planned spending under government’s recently inked $100 million infrastructure loan.
It’s imperative that these funds are used wisely and that the work is done properly the first time.
Thankfully, the recent moves by the ministry and the RDA suggest that the project may at last be on the right track.
