Dredging continues to be delayed in Parham Harbour

Significant dredging delays continue in Parham. This time due to a lack of equipment.

The dredging project, initially awarded to the local firm Blue Ocean—an entity in which the government holds a significant investment—has seen collaboration with Dutch Dredging for the removal of hard rock encountered at Parham and St. John’s sites.

Cabinet Spokesperson Lionel Hurst sought to shine further light on the issue.

“It seems there i some discord between the amounts that they are being charged and the readiness of that particular company to get started. At one point, we heard the equipment was in Guadeloupe then, we also might understand that the equipment might be further away and will take a long time to get to Antigua and that the equipment is smaller but would be just as efficient as the bigger ones in which Blue Ocean uses.

“It was not of the prettiest conversations in Cabinet yesterday,” Hurst said.

Last week, Hurst revealed that the work was delayed after compnayh while dredging encountered hard rock in some areas of the Crabbs Peninsula. This was an unexpected find as previous surveys did not show any hard rock.

A new survey was expected to take place. It is unclear if that was done.

It was last March that Cabinet announced dredging would take place at the Crabbs Peninsula to increase the size of ships passing through the area, in order to bring an increased amount of cement and LNG on island.

A timeline of four months was given for completion, but the work is still ongoing.

A similar storyline to the ongoing dredging at St John’s Harbour to make way for larger cruise vessels.

Representatives from Blue Ocean were expected to meet over the weekend with Cabinet to resolve issues and commence the work.

That work, according to Hurst has recommenced.