According to the Director of Procurement at the Recovery & Development Agency (RDA), John Primo, the contract is worth $1,799,499.68.

Primo said of the seven bids received, Autland met all the required criteria and provided the RDA with the best value for money. He said most of the other companies had omissions and errors in their bids which affected the final evaluated results.

“[The errors] included submission of bids with a longer completed timeline over which was stated in the bid outline. [Other errors noted were], omission of contractual commitments and works in progress, the non-submission of complete financial information, as well as information in their general and specific experience,” Primo stated.

He further noted the procurement was done in accordance with the Caribbean Development Bank’s procurement method of national competitive bidding.

It’s about time

Sixth District Representative Alvera Maduro-Caines said her sentiments on the rehabilitation of the roads can be summed up with three words, ‘it’s about time’.

“We the people of the Sixth District and the territory can see that plans are now coming to fruition and works are happening for the betterment of the country that we live in,” Maduro-Caines added.

Meanwhile, Premier Andrew Fahie said he is very pleased that attention is being given to Fish Bay Road which is a recovery hotspot and has been severely affected by flooding.

“We will continue as a government not only to put in place resilient infrastructure to position us for success but we will upgrade innovatively and resiliently with highly skilled contractors and good building standards,” the Premier added.

Road rehabilitation and drainage improvement

In speaking at the contract signing ceremony, the Minister of Transportation & Works, Kye Rymer said “this road will finally be rehabilitated with improvements to the drainage structure, making the roadway safe and friendly for motorist and pedestrian”.

Sections of Fish Bay Road were destroyed during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Autland said they were happy to take part in a key area of the government recovery plan.

“Here at Autland, we take great pride in producing sustainable projects at the highest quality to the people of BVI whilst staying on budget and on time,” said Brianna Brewley, a representative of Autland.

The Fish Bay Road contract is the fifth contract Autland has received from the RDA since May of last year. However, according to the Acting CEO of the RDA, Anthony McMaster, Autland’s owner, Dionne Crabbe, gets the contracts because he has shown “he will continue to be prepared and he will continue to work with all in order to ensure that his company remains prepared”.

The invitations for contract bids were published on the Department of Information and Public Relations (GIS), RDA, CDB and the BVI Beacon website. Contractors had until April 23, 2021, at 10 am to submit all contractual bids.