NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government house renovation and restoration project is expected to be completed early next year bringing an end to more than two years of work, according to Floyd Wilmott, CEO of Telco Enterprises Ltd. yesterday.
Wilmott said the project should be completed “by the end of January, the middle of February”.
“If all goes well, again, without any delays or any hindering in the project we can meet our deadline as a stance of completion but like we said the boundary wall, the new archives storage, and the landscape, they would not be completed by the middle of February, the end of February. They are gonna take us into I’m gonna say, March-April,” Wilmott said.
Thousands of workers have taken part in the project since work first began in June 2020. Wilmott said all of the staff is Bahamian with the exception of a few foreigners who specialized in certain areas.
The original timeline was 16 months, according to Telco Enterprises Quantity Surveyor Tamecko Collie, who admitted that they did not meet the deadline due to unforeseen circumstances.
“Some additional funds were required, of course you know we started the project during the pandemic so that brought its unique challenges as well as there were a whole series of changed orders that transpired over the life of the project so that had the effect of escalating costs from time to time.
“You can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and I think we are well on the way to completion,” he said.
Collie added that the final numbers are still being calculated to determine the full cost of the project.
“It was of course to the tone of several million dollars so of course a project of this magnitude, that’s not unreasonable but were doing our endeavor best now to wrap up the project and provide a wonderful project for the Bahamian people,” he said.
Wilmott explained that given the conditions of the dilapidating government building, he believes the price is justified; and in attempts to preserve the aesthetic of the building they had to salvage existing materials, some over 100 years old.
“Based on the work and our discovery of the conditions we built in, I don’t think the cost is going to be a concern to the government or to the Bahamian people.
“Take the bad material that you move, try to cut off all of the original ones, try to cut off the bad ends, and use the same material to restore whatever you’re doing. For example those railings, they’re the old Abaco Pine back from the 18 and early 1900’s.”
The Telco Enterprises CEO stated that the project manager would have relayed a message to Prime Minister Philip Davis and several other officials during a tour of Government House yesterday from their former director at the Ministry of Works who after receiving the assessment report expressed how severe the findings were.
“The former Director Ms. Roach said, she don’t know, God mussy was good to the Bahamian people that the building did not collapse on anyone. That was the state of the Windsor Wing,” Wilmott said. “The interior was full of termites, roach, all of the Abaco pines were rotting away, the Defense Force were complaining about the restrooms, and everything the ballroom and administration.
“[…] during functions here the then government or whichever government is in power had to go elsewhere to host the functions and they were hosting um in the back porch of the main residence so I don’t need to say more on the condition of the ballroom under that circumstance, but the main ballroom is 100 percent.”
