Jan. 15, 2007 — Gov. John deJongh and officials of the Public Works Department met Sunday with Williams Delight residents to tell them that work on major drainage problems will begin by the middle of this week.
The contractor, Tip Top Construction, has already begun to prepare the work site for a nine-month project that will be dominated by the installation of underground concrete box culverts, according to a Government House news release. The culverts will take runoff water from the hillside out to sea and away from the Frederiksted community, which has been subjected to flooding for years.
The governor was joined at the meeting Sunday afternoon by Acting Public Works Commissioner Robert Moorhead, PWD Asst. Commissioner for Engineering Aloy Nielsen and Public Works Project Manger Roberto Cintron, the news release said.
The officials told residents assembled for a monthly meeting Sunday that the first part of the project — for which $1.77 million has already been approved — will see the placement of the culverts and another phase of the project will see the rehabilitation of roadways and curbs in the Williams Delight community. Residents restated their long-standing concerns about when work would actually begin, noting they have been promised relief for the problems for months but those promises never materialized, the news release said.
DeJongh reiterated his administration’s commitment to resolving the decades-old flooding problem through a meticulously planned approach “to address removing the runoff water to sea and, later, repairing and rehabilitating the roadways in the west-end community," according to the news release.
Officials of Tip Top Construction assured both the administration representatives and residents of Williams Delight that heavy equipment will be staged in the area by mid-week ahead of work on the first phase of the project, the news release said.
