The eagerly anticipated expansion of the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus is making significant progress towards its commencement, as the design consultants for the project have been selected.
This crucial step, which Saudi Arabia has funded with US$80 million, brings the campus one step closer to breaking ground for construction.
Although the consulting firm’s name has not been made public, Education Minister Daryl Matthew has confirmed that this development is a significant milestone in the realization of this exciting project.
“I am advised that the design consulting team has been selected following it being advertised internationally, so an international firm has been identified and selected to be the design consultants. We have sent the information to our Saudi partners as per the contract for their ‘no objections’, so we await their response,” he disclosed.
According to the Minister, Matthew, the local companies did not respond to the tender invitation for the expansion project.
However, he further added that he does not anticipate any objections from the Saudi Arabian government.
In an effort to ensure the participation of local construction firms, the minister revealed that a role has been carved out for them in the construction phase of the project.
The role of the design consultants for the project will be to take the master plan for the expansion and come up with a set of architectural drawings.
These drawings will form the basis for a construction tender and will cover all aspects of the expansion, including dormitories, administration blocks, lecture theatres, and an international standard sports complex, which will be a part of the university.
The expansion project will begin with phase one, which involves the construction of a new Five Islands Primary School south of the university.
The present school will be demolished, paving the way for the expansion. Minister Matthew has predicted that the construction of the primary school will commence in the second half of this year.
Gassy and Daryl are telling the people of Antigua and Barbuda that they could not find qualified person in the country to design the UWI expansion. There are so much of our young people who have received scholarships to study overseas in fields of architecture drawing, construction engineering, building technology and more. Where are some of these young minds for today? The government need to invest in it own human resource and stop bringing outsiders. We educated our young minds to take our country into the future, not to have some outsiders telling us what our future should be.