MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' 26 capital program projects focused on new port and power plant, Tussac House and housing

Catherine Silva Donayre, said it has been “an incredibly busy quarter for the capital program, which constitutes over 26 separate projects and ongoing programs in total”

The Falkland Islands' government has released new information on the current state of the Capital Development Program, saying that progress has been good despite the disruption from Covid-19.

Director of Development and Commercial Services, Catherine Silva Donayre, said: “It’s been an incredibly busy quarter for the capital program, which constitutes over 26 separate projects and ongoing programs in total. “I’m pleased to say that FIG has made some huge strides in terms of meeting our milestones over the past three months, despite the pandemic and the consequences for our workforce, supply chain and other logistical considerations. Progress has been made in almost every area of our overall program and our prospects for delivery in the next quarter are very positive. I look forward to sharing more of the detail of these plans, in particular for major infrastructure, in the months ahead.”

The program, which currently has a budget of £110.5m over the next five years, commits to delivering on a range of projects, from buildings maintenance to constructing a new port and power station, and finishing Tussac House. The latter three are the biggest ongoing projects, and each of them has passed key milestones in recent months.

In April 2020, a contract was signed with BAM Nuttall for the design and build of the new port, and although it was agreed to pause this work while the coronavirus was dominating efforts both in the Falkland Islands and overseas, this resumed in September. A team from BAM Nuttall came down to the Islands to conduct a detailed two-week stakeholder engagement exercise with all industry sectors, which included 58 separate discussions and presentations. A concept design should be ready in the first half of 2021.

The front-end engineering design for the new power station is currently underway and is due to be completed by December 2020. This is an approach within the construction industry that considers the complete scope of a project in order to thoroughly plan out the deliverables and to control expenses. It is used for complex and technical projects, particularly those relating to infrastructure developments. The proposal will be taken through the ExCo budget process in the New Year.

The ground-works for the Tussac House development, are complete and work is progressing on the plans for construction. The target date for the facility to be finished is December 2022 with works restarting on site in July/ August 2021. The first loop of the Bennett’s Paddock development is expected to be completed in time to allow plots to be released in April 2021. Plans for the new landfill site and waste transfer facility are also on track to be operating by December 2021.

The procurement for the new housing contract has now begun and submissions are invited up until the end of January 2021, with the aim of awarding the contract in March 2021. Progress is also being made with design work for jetties and ramps, with over 75% of the design work for four locations now complete. This has been slower than hoped due to a lack of seabed and tidal information.

The KEMH improvement works have been proceeding in line with the projected timeline, and the building works for the new plaster room, mammography suite and CT scanner are now all complete. The Invitation to Tender for the new operating theatre is due to be reviewed by the Program Board during November, with a view to release in January 2021. Falkland College is, of course, now open, and houses the new Christie Library. Plans are now underway to renovate the previous Training Centre facility. It is hoped to define scope and budget for these works by early 2021. (Penguin News)