***Source https://thecaribbeannewsnow.com/, Caribbean New Editor, First Published Sept, 4, 2023
Work continues at Dominica’s international airport as facilities to support the main construction are being built at the site.
In an interview quoted by the Associate Times, the CEO of International Airport Development Company Samuel Johnson said that as soon as the equipment from China arrived last June, construction on facilities such as cement mixing and lab testing have been in the works.
“So today, the work is happening in finalizing of the batch plant site where you have concrete and asphalt batching and taking this concrete storage, concrete and mixing, and then they’ll be tested in a lab testing by the contractor happening in that area as well,” Johnson said.
A fuel pump is also set up at the site for easy access of fuel supply for trucks and other vehicles that are essential for the mobility of materials at the site.
Johnson also said there’s an initial grubbing of the entire site, and he contractor is currently going through some revisions with the airport’s design.
“So a lot of the movement you’re seeing right now is just getting ready and ensuring that that will go to the conclusion, because as you’ve said in the past, Dominica has no flat land, although this looks relatively flat, when you when you come closer, you can see the valleys and the hills that all would have to be levelled to create that that airport set,” Johnson added.
Dominica’s international airport is one of the defining projects of the Skerrit government, with an estimated budget of EC$40 million and a promise of creating more jobs for the locals.
The government of Dominica entered an agreement with private developing company MMC Development Ltd. in 2021 “to build the airport on behalf of the people of Dominica” and is the one responsible to use the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme to fund the airport.
“It is the developer who has to use our CBI programme to raise the finances for the construction of the airport,” Skerrit explained, adding that there is not financial liability on the people of Dominica. “As it is, the developer is the one who would assign the contract with the contractor to build the international airport.”
MMC Development Ltd. has been a longstanding partner of the government of Dominica in terms of building climate-resilient houses and other essential infrastructure.
