Just toying with some ideas

Editor: A friend in England recently attended a meeting and our esteemed prime minister was the keynote speaker. Gonsalves spoke to the Vincentian Diaspora of his government’s plans to build the new airport at Argyle and to eventually turn the Arnos Vale airport into a shopping mall. The other plan he spoke of was news to me – to dig a tunnel under Sion Hill in order to connect Kingstown with the proposed mall at Arnos Vale. {{more}}

I have an idea to combine all three projects. This should save the government a lot of money and time… Dig a tunnel under Sion Hill deep and wide enough to serve as the runway for the new airport. Then line the tunnel, on both sides, with shops to make it the new shopping mall. Planes would land and take off right by the ferry wharf, saving the expense of a long taxi ride to and from the airport for those passengers boarding ferries to other islands in the country. And think of the convenience for the prime minister and the rest of the government! Just a few steps down the road from their offices and the legislature!

This proposal would solve another problem. Gonsalves apparently also said the huge amount of aggregate required to build the new airport at Argyle would be obtained by blasting various inland mountains (news to me, too). With my tunnel/airport/shopping mall idea, the aggregate would already be on site when they blast out the tunnel, thus saving the expense and bother of trucking in materials.

Of course, if they go to all the bother of blasting, and destroying, a mountain for aggregate, why not just flatten the mountain top altogether and build the new airport there. We already have a cross country road under construction that will access it!

All sounds simple enough. Everything looks good on paper.

Susan Toy