The Falkland Islands Planning and Building Committee (PBC) has recommended, unanimously, that the current plans for the new port to be refused by Executive Council. Following the decision the committee adjourned to provide written reasons, --environmental and shortcomings--, to Executive Council (ExCo) for consideration when making the final decision whether to accept or not.
Last Friday 10 September 2021, the Falkland Islands port project received ExCo (Executive Council) approval to proceed to Stage One B, Detailed Design, which will take place over the next 13 months. Stage One A began in July 2020 and involved an extensive series of stakeholder workshops, surveys, demand studies and environmental assessments in order to produce the initial Concept Design for the new facility.
The Argentine congress is restless and is concerned since the Falkland Islands started to build its new deep water port, fearing, besides the usual cacophony of claims, that the Islands could replace Ushuaia as the main access to Antarctica.
The province of Tierra del Fuego, on Tuesday, denounced UK's construction company BAM Nuttall for operating with no authorization in the Falkland/Malvinas Islands district, currently under British control but over which Argentine claims sovereignty.
Reuters has reported that the Falkland Islands got its first sovereign credit rating, an investment-grade A+ score from S&P Global on Monday, as the tiny British-run territory looks to dip into borrowing markets to pay for improvements to its main port.
Falkland Island lawmaker, MLA Roger Edwards, portfolio holder for Public Works spoke about the ongoing project for the new port to replace FIPASS, (Falklands Interim Port and Storage System) and the resources it will require, among which some 900,000 tons of stone.
The Falklands Pony’s Pass Quarry is a busy site at the heart of industrial operations and produces 160,000 tons per annum of quartzitic sandstone using a state-of-the-art mobile crushing and screening train.
The planned new port for the Falkland Islands to be constructed at Stanley Harbor was analyzed during a presentation this week to members of the public in the Town Hall, by a team from BAM Nuttall and Royal Haskoning, the companies responsible for the planning and construction of the project.