RDA targets new magistrate’s court, restoration of water infrastructure in Long Bush, Lower Estate

The Recovery & Development Agency (RDA) under the stewardship of Acting CEO Anthony McMaster is moving swiftly ahead with executing approximately $40 million worth of government projects, with two more contracts scheduled to be signed Thursday, June 11.

Speaking to BVI News, McMaster said the RDA is actively working behind the scenes to effectively execute the mandate of government.

“We will be signing two additional contracts that would see upgrades to the water infrastructure in the Long Bush, Lower Estate area as we are going to be repairing the reservoir there.”

“Also, we will be moving forward with another contract which will be for design and contract administration for a new magistrate’s court — effectively phase one of what will be referred to as the Halls of Justice,” he added.

Several tenders to come

McMaster also said roughly six tenders for other projects are scheduled to be released to the public domain in the next couple weeks.

“If there are not already out, that will be going out within the next two weeks, where we would have some other construction works dealing with road repairs, we are expecting to have a tender out shortly for the design of the new ferry terminal in West End,” he said.

Other professionals to benefit from awarding of contracts

McMaster also explained that the contracts to be awarded by the RDA will not just benefit construction companies, as the RDA has developed a system where other related professional fields will also be rewarded.

These include project managers, designers, architects, engineers, all auxiliary services linked to the construction industry.

Full commitment of RDA staff

Meanwhile, the acting CEO thanked his staff for what he described as the full commitment shown since he started in the post early March.

With the challenges of COVID-19, he said the management team played a pivotal role setting up the RDA even months before he assumed the position, to ensure that the functions of the agency were able to continue remotely outside of the offices.

“The first three months though it had some challenges for the first week or two, it became relatively stable, relatively quickly because of the way we are set up,” McMaster said.

“So persons were able to work from home and that gave us the opportunity to actually prepare all of the behind the scene activity so that as soon as we came out of COVID we were able go straight into executing contract signings and then moving contractors to begin the process of construction,” he added.

The RDA is expected to issue a total of 19 contracts over the next two years. Their total value is approximately $40 million.