Tobago airport project presses on

Kinnesha George-Harry

Despite lingering concerns among Crown Point residents about the Government’s proposed expansion of the Arthur NR International Airport, Tobago, the mega project is proceeding full speed ahead.

National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco) project manager Onika Morris-Alleyne revealed on Friday the project is expected to begin next month with an estimated completion time of December 2020.

“We are now at the stage where we are ready to begin the land surveys and studies that need to happen, and to begin the detailed design of the project, that would be kicking off in May 2019,” she told residents on Friday during a public forum hosted by Nidco at Rovanel’s Resort, Store Bay Local Road, Crown Point.

Morris-Alleyne said evaluation work on the lands under consideration and upgrade of the existing terminal is expected to begin in July.

She added the construction of the new main terminal is scheduled to begin in November.

“The intention is to complete the new terminal for operation by the end of December 2020,” she said.

The meeting, attended by close to 100 residents, provided information about the project in relation to land acquisition and social and environmental impact.

Morris-Alleyne, who provided details about aspects of the project, said the intention is to construct a new passenger terminal for both domestic and international operations east of the existing air traffic control tower.

This, she said, would be designed to accommodate a capacity of three million passengers.

“The capacity of the existing airport is one million passengers. So, the design of the new airport would allow for a sustainable development and also future expansions, so we can increase capacity as we go along.”

She said the project would be undertaken in two phases; construction of a new terminal building and associated works and construction of a new airport access road.

“The new terminal building and associated works… the site is roughly bounded by Gaskin Bay Road to the east, the existing airport runway to the south, old Store Bay Road to the north and roughly the existing airport perimeter fence line, which is near to the MET office going north on the Western side,” said Morris-Alleyne.

“The building is going to be designed in a “Z” shape with an international wing and a domestic wing. The airport is being developed by a design, finance, construct contractor, which means that the contractor would design the works, finance the works and construct the works to b e repaid over a period of time.”

Nidco's vice president of engineering and programme management Steve Garibsingh explained to residents the results of social surveys conducted by ACQ and Associates between February 18 and March 30 in Crown Point.

Saying social surveys are an essential part of the land acquisition process, Garibsingh said they are used to identify persons living in or having some interest in a property and determine how they can be impacted by the acquisition.

“The impacts because of acquisition is really a difficult thing… mentally, emotionally, it’s stressful,” he said.

“We really would like to develop a policy that would assist those individuals that need that type of assistance to relocate as easily as possible.”

Garibsingh added: “We identified 92 parcels over the 53 acres that ought to be acquired. We were able to interview 79 of the persons who had interest in these parcels, so more or less, we were able to obtain data from three quarters of the affected population.

“Eleven persons declined to provide any information at all, and we were not able to locate ten persons, while three persons stated that we should seek information from their representatives.”

He said section three legal notices were issued to all landowners.

“That is simply telling the land owner that we are likely to acquire your property for a public purpose. It allows the State to enter onto your property to conduct surveys and studies,” he said

“Once approved by Cabinet, the notice is published in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette, it is then served within seven working days of publication in the Gazette. The notices are also posted twice in the daily newspapers and I want to emphasise that the notice is not an eviction notice,” he said.

Having completed the surveys and studies, Garibsingh said the next step would be the publication of the Section Four legal notice, which allows the state to enter the property and take possession of it.

“A section four notice cannot be served before two months has elapsed after publication of the section three notice… once that section four is published, the Commissioner of State Lands is inclined to invite the affected persons, the land owners to submit their valuation and claims,” he said.

Garibsingh said in the negotiation stage, the owner may apply for up to 80 per cent of the Commissioner of Valuations estimate, prior to agreement, after which, upon settlement, the landowner can submit claim for the outstanding 20 per cent balance of the compensation.

He said after this is done the landowner will have to vacate the property so that the State can come in and do the construction.