Government never dealt with the impact road construction and rerouting would have on businesses, despite spending $3.3 million on two studies before work began.
The Ministry of Works and Transport never dealt with the impact road construction and rerouting would have on businesses in the area of Blue Hill Road and Market Street, despite it insisting that two studies – costing $3.3 million – were undertaken before the work began, a Supreme Court judgment revealed.
Justice Neville Adderly’s judgment states that an affidavit submitted by Joy John, of the Ministry’s Project Execution Unit, said a “professional report” was done by engineers Mott McDonald at a cost of $2 million, and a further “economic appraisal” done in May 2008 at a cost of $1.3 million, prior to the start of the New Providence Road Improvement Project.
However, Justice Adderly found: “In perusing these various reports, it is clear to the court that none of them dealt with the impact on businesses located along Corridors 11A and 11B (Blue Hill Road and Market Street).”
According to the Judgment, the Ministry of Works was granted a stay that would allow them to continue work on the roads because the injunction should “not take effect immediately due to the stage of the works”.
With this injunction being in place until September 21, Mr Moss said it was unlikely the road work will stop completely as Market Street and Blue Hill Road are in such a poor state they are almost “unusable”.
