Tobago roads, jetties to be repaired in 2022

Show Me A Road Tobago (SMART) is one of many initiatives the newly-elected Executive Council of the Tobago House of Assembly aims to rollout within the first quarter of 2022.

The disclosure was made by Chief Secretary Farley Augustine as he addressed reporters virtually following a five-day retreat which ended on Sunday.

“That is where using some online platform, you’ll be able to report to us – self report those potholes within your street and your community. We’ll be able to geo-tag them and locate them properly and we would use a mixture of the division’s resources with labour from the community to begin to patch these holes that WASA (Water and Sewerage Authority) has left all over the place.”

He said the finances may not be available to go on a road-paving campaign, but “at least we can alleviate some of your challenges by patching the potholes as many as we can get to and as quickly as we can get to them.”

He said the Assembly will also continue with the installation of traffic mirrors across the island especially in critical areas that have none.

“A few were installed by the division last year but given the terrain of Tobago, the geography of Tobago, there is an urgent need for a lot more.”

The entrance to Pigeon Point Heritage Park, which he said is “a little over 100 feet,” will be milled and resurfaced as the island is looking to reopen for tourism. Additionally, the bridge at Gru Gru Patch will be assessed.

He said at James Street in Goodwood, there is an incomplete drainage project that was started.

“We will complete that project and ensure that we’ll bring some relief to the residents.”

He also said an assessment of Village Street, Mt St George will be done.

A traffic lay-by will also be placed at the Signal Hill traffic lights.

“That’s because there is a national mandate to reopen schools in the month of February. We are preparing for all the students returning to school and ensuring that they can be safe along the highway as they engage, get reengaged in face-to-face schooling.”

Augustine also gave an update on upgrade works for the Plymouth jetty and Little Tobago jetty.

On the Plymouth jetty he said, "That has been a bugbear for a long while and we finally have the leaseholder on board. The lands surrounding the jetty is not in the control of the Tobago House of Assembly, it’s in the hands of a private leaseholder and so that in itself created a challenge with getting the jetty fixed. We could not just march in and take up somebody’s land and start to work – we do not have compulsory acquisition rights in the laws for the Tobago House of Assembly.”

He said the public can look forward to the repair of the Little Tobago jetty.

“We would not get to another tourist peak season without it. We have been without it for as long as I can remember – for donkey years – and it will be fixed...Of course it cannot be done and completed in this quarter but I’m saying definitively, that we will start it in this first quarter of 2022.”