Port Project co-ordinator explains cost hike

Before the government took the decision to construct a new port in Rose Place, Kingstown, detailed and lengthy studies were carried out.

“We have studied the expansion of Campden Park. We have studied the expansion of Kingstown. We have studied the new construction. We have studied an extension into Arnos Vale… whatever the scope was, to find the least cost…,” engineer and Project Co-ordinator on the Kingstown Port Modernisation Project, Lenski Douglas said on WE FM on April 27, 2025, during which he also explained what led to the hike in the cost of the project.

He said the narrative that a $20 million investment could have modernized port facilities here, overlooks decades of detailed planning, hard data, and the urgent realities of today’s port infrastructure needs.

The engineer said that around 2016 a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) regional report which was part of a broader study on port efficiency in light of the Panama Canal expansion, offered economic recommendations.

Douglas said while this was not an engineering or feasibility study, it projected that by 2025, SVG would handle around 23,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) but in 2024 alone, the country surpassed that, managing over 24,400 TEUs which stretched the port capacity limits.

If the government relied solely on small efficiency improvements, this would create serious issues as both existing facilities have been long operating beyond their designed capacities.

Campden Park was designed for 12,000 to 16,000 TEUs, while Kingstown, retrofitted in the 1970s and originally built in the 1960s with a 30-year lifespan, was deemed unsuitable for continued container operations as far back as 2008, Douglas said, adding that it was made further problematic by Hurricane Beryl in 2024.

Douglas said that port Kingstown was never built for containerization or modern security compliance and noted that in 2008, a report concluded that containerized operations there should cease entirely.

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