Board Walk repairs were already in the works says Finance Minister

Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves has provided an explanation on the broken ‘Villa board walk’ issue which has been making the rounds on social media in a video that shows persons having difficulty traversing the rocky area to get out of the sea.

Wrapping up the budget session last Friday, January 17, 2025, Gonsalves stated firmly that the work currently being carried out on the board walk was not in response the video. Subsequent claims were made that the repair work was due to the video in circulation, and comments made about it from people.

Gonsalves refuted those claims noting that he had been having conversations with Minister of Tourism, Carlos James, on this matter “for a very long time”.

He recalled that there was a plan for the company, Sea Operations, to repair the board walk.

This plan included replacing some of the existing wooden structures which had rotted.

He told the House that on November 23, 2024, there was agreement with Sea Operations to do a “quick fix” repair of the boardwalk. A $107,000 contract was signed, and the company began mobilizing, but they had some work on another contract in Arnos Vale, which slowed things a bit.

Then Hurricane Beryl struck on July 1, 2024 causing further damage to the board walk.

At this point, Gonsalves said, a quick fix of the board walk was out of the picture since “everything was washed away”. A new design was therefore necessary.

Gonsalves, who is the Parliamentary Representative of East St George, said he visited the site along with Errol Sutherland, Director of Sea Operations.

During that visit, Sutherland fell and was seriously injured, resulting in a further delay.

However, by September 26, 2024, the company submitted a new proposal to construct a clamate resilient board walk.

This work includes the lengthening of the boardwalk from 225 ft to 260 ft.

“Every moment since the hurricane, we working to get this thing replaced,” Gonsalved declared.

He explained that the contract for the new board walk project was signed on November 13, 2024, and the work is expected to last for eight weeks.

“We are building now, something approaching $.5 million.”

He said the new board walk is expected to be completed by March 30, 2025.

The work, he said will make the board walk “better; it will be resilient to wave action, it will give proper access to and from the beach”.