Cross Island Road project yet to start

By Talaia Mika • 24 October 2023, 8:50PM

The Cross Island Road Project engineer, Toomata Viliamu Punivalu has confirmed road works are yet to start with the construction environmental plan still under consideration.

Samoa Observer visited the project site where the office is located at Tiavi, where the placing of cones on both sides of the road led to assumptions by the public that work was about to start.

However, Toomata said not to let the cones fool anyone, as the construction environmental plan needs to be satisfied before he is given possession of the site.

His environmental team and the team from the Land Transport Authority (L.T.A.) are scheduled to meet to iron these out.

"We haven't started yet and nothing really can be said until the possession of the site is issued," he said.

Toomata was hoping it would have been issued last Friday when the meeting with the Asian Development Bank (A.D.B.) was completed. But he said that did not eventuate.

Attempts by this newspaper to get a comment from the L.T.A. were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, a portion of land next to where the cones are located has been cleared and buildings have been constructed as a storage site for the project.

In April this year, a Chinese firm was awarded a multimillion-tala contract to undertake road works as part of the Cross Island Road Project on the island of Upolu.

This was confirmed by Prime Minister, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, who confirmed that the A.D.B. would fund the project which would take over 12 months to complete.

This newspaper reported that the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, a Chinese Government-owned State company, won the contract valued at more than SAT$15 million.

Fiamē said the Cabinet had approved the resumption of construction work of Cross Island Road from Tanugamanono to Siumu after completing all the necessary documentation for the Tenders Board.

She said there was hope that the contract could be awarded to local construction companies. However, due to the strict requirements of the funding agency, they endorsed and awarded the contract to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.

"But there is a hope that local companies can be awarded sub-contracts for this project. The standard and requirements provided under these big projects funded by these big agencies are quite high, hence why international companies always get awarded," said the Prime Minister.

"The project should have been rolled out already but because we were trying to see whether it was possible it could be awarded to a local company or companies."

The confirmation by Fiamē of the awarding of the road works contract to the Chinese Government-owned State company came on the back of an announcement by Australian firm S.M.E.C. that it was engaged to supervise civil works for the upgrading of the Central Cross Island Road as part of the A.D.B. funded project.

The S.M.E.C. statement said the CCIR [Central Cross Island Road] is approximately 20 km long and connects eight villages along the way. The existing narrow, winding, and steep 4-5 m wide two-lane road will be widened to a standard 7 m carriageway width. The upgraded alignment will include a 4.5 km long urban section and a 15.5 km rural section. Improved road and pedestrian safety features will be introduced.