Bahamas Striping Group of Companies (BSGC) executives, president Atario Mitchell, and general manager Melanie Roach, while in Eleuthera on June 6th, giving interviews to national media, on the site of the new multi-million dollar asphalt plant, located just south of Rock Sound, indicated that the awaited road works in Central and South Eleuthera were set to go ahead within several weeks time.
Following the arrival of the plant to Eleuthera during the month of March 2024, efforts “entailed coordinating different components coming in from all across the world, getting the bitumen tank set up, and getting the site secured,” said Mr. Mitchell. During mid-May, the company announced the arrival of their paving equipment such as trucks, excavators, paving machine and tractors, on Eleuthera, bringing them closer to commencing paving on the island.
Mr. Mitchell continued, “…We are now in the final stages of bringing everything together… We are trying to make our goal of producing asphalt on the week of the 17th [June]… We have the technician on the ground, doing the final checks, and making sure that everything is calibrated to the correct specs. The next step is for us actually to do the test of asphalt, which we are looking to do within the next ten days.”
Two areas in South Eleuthera were highlighted as where initial paving works would begin, said GM Ms. Roach, “We have already identified two areas – one in Deep Creek and one in Wemyss Bight, where we don’t have that much road base reconstruction to do, so we are able to jump quickly.”
The plant, when fully up and running, according to site project manager Mr. Ramdeo Ramdas, will be able to produce approximately 160 tons of asphalt per hour – allowing 1200 to 1400 tons to be produced per day.
A Job Fair, held on Thursday morning, June 6th, 2024 at the Eleuthera Chamber of Commerce Business Hub by BSGC, offered Eleutherans and Bahamians a variety of job opportunities with the road works project, including administration, operations, warehousing, heavy equipment mechanics and operators, labourers, drivers, as well as a number of other positions. Interested persons were also encouraged to send in their resume by email to (pbrown@bahamasstriping.com).
According to BSGC, 160 jobs are expected to be created during the life of the project – between BSGC and the two Eleutheran contractors – Quick Fix and Nu View Construction.
“The only thing we are now waiting on is the aggregate material, and the final set up of the plant, so I think we are progressing very well,” confirmed president Mitchell, as he commented on the final steps before the commissioning of the asphalt plant in South Eleuthera.
On Friday, June 14th, Central and South Eleuthera member of parliament, the Hon. Clay Sweeting confirmed that the awaited aggregate material had arrived on island, and the planned June commencement of road works was going ahead.
