With the known demand and expected rise in production levels at the Studley Park Quarry, the Management of the Studley Park Enterprise Limited (SPEL) is exploring options for the barging of aggregate to Southwest Tobago for infrastructural projects including the Magdalena Breakwater and Airport runway reconstruction; to Trinidad and other export markets.
Two options may involve the construction/rehabilitation of a jetty facility at sites identified in the Barbados Bay area, Studley Park. The third option, utilizing the inland route to the Scarborough Port provides an unattractive immediate solution; it will prove costly and exacerbate congestion levels. Consequently, the Management is acutely aware of the need to establish a dedicated facility to ‘Load Out’ the considerable production in response to the demand requirements.
Already, marine and terrestrial surveys in Barbados Bay have been conducted to obtain relevant scientific data, while an initial stakeholders meeting was held in August to obtain the views of immediate users of the area. Further to this, a team comprising the Management of SPEL, Director of the Coastal Protection Unit of the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) and Engineers of the National Infrastructure Development Company Limited (NIDCO) visited Barbados Bay last week to advance the data collection process and to assess the feasibility of the two proposed locations; i.e. the abandoned jetty facility and an area in vicinity of Fort Granby.
Conceptual designs of the two locations at Barbados Bay are to be produced within four weeks. Among other requirements, the concepts are to consider wave and wind data, structural integrity of platforms, compiled beach profiling data, sociocultural and environmental viability, economics and functionality for stakeholders in the area.
Further, a wider scaled stakeholders meeting would take place subsequently at which the designs would be presented.
The public would be apprised of the developments as they occur.