Rowley: Tobago bridge not feasible

PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley says building a bridge from Toco to Scarborough is not financially feasible. He said so at a People's National Movement internal election campaign meeting on Sunday at the Diego Martin Community Centre.

He said he saw a newspaper report that not providing a seabridge one of the major failures that will cause this Government to lose the next election. He recalled meeting a man last week in Tobago who told him to fix the island's problems, a bridge to Tobago was needed.

"And if Government does not want to build a bridge from Toco to Tobago we don't like Tobagonians. Ladies and gentlemen there is no bridge in the world, nowhere in the world, of that nature." He said there are long bridges in the world and while in China, he drove on one about 40 miles long but it was over shallow water and there were props along the way.

"You have 2,000 feet of water between Toco and Scarborough. If you do manage to build that bridge to paint alone on that bridge is as big as the national budget. And if you build it from steel you are going to have to paint it every day otherwise it will rust and disappear."

He said there was nowhere in the world where any similar bridge was built to link one million people to 65,000 people. "Any kind of world class bridge normally links a few million people with a few million people and every day, a half million cars pass on the road and they toll it and they make money to pay for the bridge."