Transcript of

Programme

1. PRAYER

· Peter Buffonge, Preacher

2. OPENING & INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

· Alric Taylor, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications & Works

3. OVERVIEW OF PROJECT & FORUM

· Claude E. S. Hogan, GoM Airstrip Project Manager/Forum Facilitator

4. SUPPORTING INPUTS

· Stephen Young (DFID-M) – Engineering & Safety Support Details

· Stephen O’Driscoll – Management Dynamics & the Implementation Process

· Dave Dolan – Drainage & Hydrological Issues

· Michael Barnard – Communications Issues

· Claude Hogan (GoM) – Socio-Economic Climate & Dimensions

5. POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

· Bill Millington, Director, Halcrow Group

Pastor Buffonge: Gracious Father and our God, as we come before your presence again tonight, we always count it a privilege that we can come boldly to your throne of Grace. Father as we go in to this discussion tonight we ask for your guidance for you said that in all our ways that we should acknowledge you God and you would give direction. So Father as we go in to this session tonight we ask God that you will give direction in these decision-making in the name of Jesus. We give you thanks and we give you praise. Amen.

Your Excellency; Permanent Secretary, Alric Taylor; Sir Howard, DFID Head; Deputy Commissioner of Police; other distinguished ladies and gentlemen, a very pleasant evening to you. And please forgive me—honorable Speaker and his wife—sorry I did not see you there for a moment, sir. May I however continue?

Having regard for the length of discussion that we are supposed to have tonight. We have a very tight program. Everything about this airport project seems to be on a tight schedule but we have five gentlemen, including myself, and we’ll be prepared to go through this program with you tonight.

But before we do that we wanted to be able to set the framework for these discussions and I’m very honored to invite one of our project officers for this project – We have two project officers responsible for this project. They are DFID, the Department for International Development-Montserrat, London-Montserrat and locally from the Government of Montserrat side—the other project officer is Mr. Alric Taylor, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Works.

Without any further ado, may I ask you to please help me to welcome the Permanent Secretary to set the tone for the discussions? Permanent Secretary. (Applause)

A. Taylor: Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Your Excellency, the Governor; Honorable Speaker of the House; Sir Howard; members of the Halcrow team; distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good evening.

The Ministry of Communications & Works in association with the airport design consultants have organized this forum tonight as part of our public information strategy to inform the public on the proposed airstrip at Geralds and indeed to provide an opportunity for interaction on key issues and concerns allied to the proposed facility.

The Government of Montserrat has already taken a decision to construct a temporary airstrip at Geralds. Whatever “temporary “is defined to mean, the provision of this facility is important for several reasons among which are: economic and investment opportunities and also for the social and financial gains which could arise from this. In fact, it is my view that this facility could be the engine for redevelopment of Montserrat.

Despite the perceived limitations, as a people we need to look for the opportunities for maximizing the use of this facility. There have been several schools of thought, which posit that an airstrip at Geralds is not safe and neither will it offer opportunities for expansion in the future. Alternate sites have been identified by interested parties but the view of the experts is that these alternatives do not satisfy the requirements or they could cause considerable disruption to wider sections of the public if they were to be implemented at this time.

It is my understanding that contrary to the views that abound on operational safety of an airstrip at Geralds there are other airports in the region where conditions are worse than those at Geralds and the records reveal few, if any, accidents. However, this is not to underestimate the need to ensure that the operation of an airstrip at Geralds is safe.

Closely allied to safety is the need for improved security as a result of the September 11^th events. Montserrat needs a safe airstrip where persons who have decided to travel by air transportation can feel safe and less anxious when they travel into and out of Montserrat.

As I understand it, risks are part of an airport’s operations but more often than not, these are seemingly linked with the decision-making capabilities of the operators using the facility. However, every effort must therefore be undertaken to ensure that the infrastructure is not a contributory factor to increased risks.

Siting an airport at Geralds has other implications too: relocation, land issues, access to other areas, housing, noise pollution, etc. and Government is mindful of these and a Steering Group comprised of members from key government departments has been set up to deal with these matters. I have no doubt that the requisite actions would be taken.

Tonight’s event then is an important one that seeks to take this project forward. And the pleasure is mine to extend a very warm welcome to all of you who have taken time out to be a part of this important exercise. I wish to extend a very warm welcome to the Halcrow team. Members of this team are not new to our shores in that they were associated with the previous project to realign Bramble’s Airport.

Let this then be an interactive evening where we could discuss the issues in an honest—indeed, we’re in the Church—frank and cordial manner. Once again, welcome to all of you. (Applause)

C. Hogan: Thank you very much, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications & Works, Mr. Alric Taylor. And as you might have gathered over the past few months, the Ministry of Communications and Works is the client Ministry for the proposed airport at Geralds.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have spoken several times in respect of the airport project as sort of the lead person as Project Manager for a number of issues, some of which, the Permanent Secretary has raised. We are indeed, I think somewhat fortunate in so far as we can tonight sit here and give consideration to the future of our island and our own personal development as it may or may not be enhanced by an airport at Geralds.

But what is very clear to me as the Project Manager is that we have but two choices at the moment given the time and place and situation in which we find ourselves. Those two choices are: to have an airport or not to have an airport.

And then we have other wishes. We might wish to have an airport but we’d like to have the airport fashioned and designed to meet the needs and aspirations which we have set for ourselves. We had an airport and we had dreams of a Bramble expanded and extended and reoriented to meet our economic and social demands and our demands to have—our hopes to have more tourists, more investors, more businessmen. Unfortunately, some of those hopes were dashed when in 1995 the events of Soufrière Hills Volcano were visited upon us. And we have had to relocate to north Montserrat, then a sparse, barren hinterland where very few people had dreams of retiring in glory and sunshine.

But today, this is the place; this is the time in which we find ourselves, really – making this part of north Montserrat the most habitable. And I’m encouraged because I find that even nature looks like it’s on our side because I remember when I was young and coming to the north it used to look really dry and I wondered about vegetation and the environmental impact and what about the Silver Hills? Why were they so barren? But you realize since we came over here the whole place turned green. (Laughter) Anybody observed that? I observed the whole place turned green so I’m very encouraged.

But back to the question of to have or not to have—In that context of where we have come from and where we find ourselves—and it has been established by researchers in political science, etc. that once you have developed to a certain level it is rather impossible to reverse that impetus in your mind. And your whole being, your whole spirit is motivated to move from where you were to where you want it to be. And we have gone through a reverse cycle. Indeed sometimes I wonder if we don’t need more than four psychologists. I might need two for myself.

But the reality is how do you adjust to a situation where psychologically you are motivated to go from where you are in your mind to a new reality where you have benefactors who can say to you (legally so) that I am required to give you so much resources to satisfy so much of your needs over so much of a period of your time and really, at the end of the day, the choice is yours as to how you make it? Whether you’re going to creep before you walk or you’re going to start to walk before you even creep because really that is the situation we find ourselves.

So how do we answer the question to have or not to have? It’s an impossible question to answer. So I think the Government of Montserrat has done the really credible, bold thing of progressing on a path of attempting to resolve for the people of Montserrat some form of an approach to a destiny which we have already fixed in our minds.

So the struggle is to really define and design and come up with what ultimately are our needs in this situation. What is affordable in this situation? And how can we take best advantage of those resources which have been given to us in this situation? So really we are becoming, I think, a more self-determined people. But it’s a tough challenge and we continue as a people to knock on doors to seek assistance, to do as the Agriculture Department say, to grow our own and get involved in import substitution as we try to make our own lives while, of course, there are all of these other factors which we need to take into consideration.

The Honorable Chief Minister of Montserrat—I think he—Dr. John Osborne, that is—He said it in a simple way when we were in London the other day. A people on welfare could only get poor or poorer because welfare is a trap and the trap of welfare is that when you get on it, you lose your inclination to want to work and you lose a lot of your self-respect. And you lose your desire to live as a man. And this is the question of whether we want to wait upon the Lord or we’ll help ourselves while the Lord helps us.

And this is the context in which I present to you tonight, the next stage of the implementation of an airport project for Montserrat which offers us the opportunity right now to be busy, to remain busy, to not lose sight of the fact that we have to work to keep practicing to work, to keep your brain in tune with the idea that you are in a situation and you have to keep working yourself out of it and there are not going to be any miracles about getting out of the situation in Montserrat, but work.

And right now I know how the international community system works. I understand that when you engage them it is not very easy to disengage. So we have to work through the process where the United Kingdom Government and the European Union Government have acceded to our request to finance what we call a temporary airport and I will not seek to define it at this time. But it has its limitations but it has its advantages.

So might I invite you now to recognize that the Government has taken a decision to move forward with the implementation of an airport at Geralds? And in that regard, we have contracted the Halcrow Group. They are no strangers to Montserrat. They have worked at the Bramble’s Airport. They have a long history of being involved in airport construction—50 years of it I understand. They have built airports in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in Nevis. They are currently working in Dominica, Melville Hall. And they were the ones who were commissioned at the time—just before ’95 to extend and reorientate the Bramble Airport.

So in a way, we have a set of people on a team who are – who have been involved not only in airport but they have regional and local experience. I have every confidence in their expertise. And tonight, they’ll take you through the final design stage of what is proposed to be the Geralds Airport or Airstrip Complex. And they’ll try to guide you along as to how they’ll be proceeding taking into consideration wind and safety studies, turbulence, modeling—a number of issues.

But I think I’ve spoken enough and I think you now have your thinking caps on and listen with a keen ear.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have from the Department for International Development-Montserrat Office, Mr. Stephen Young, an engineer assigned specifically to the Montserrat project. And Stephen will quite soon introduce himself so you can hear how his voice sounds otherwise than on radio.

On my immediate left is Mr. Bill Millington. He’s the Halcrow Project Director, team leader for the Montserrat group. He has a long and distinguished tour of duty in the Caribbean, as I said, including Dominica, St. Lucia, Nevis, St. Vincent.

The Project Manager from the Halcrow side is Mr. Stephen O’Driscoll. He’s also an engineer. He possesses exceptional coordinating skills as far as I’m able to discern and he has a depth of knowledge in air transportation issues, which is his area of specialization.

Mr. Dave Dolan, the gentleman with the gray air in the nice light green suit is the drainage and hydrological engineering specialist for the project. His main job is to ensure that full account is taken of the drainage base in the Geralds area in such a way that the strip is not compromised in the immediate or medium term.

Michael Barnard is a – I call him the old veteran—man of great wisdom in—I think it’s (indecipherable) airports and navaids and communications so you’ll want to hear from him tonight. That’s his business. He specializes in equipping commercial airport control towers with the optimum range of equipment to ensure safe and effective communications between the air operators and traffic control. He also provides expert guidance on the other communications systems which must be present at any licensed airport.

Those are our panelists. But to bring you to the heart of the matter, we are going to have a keynote, PowerPoint presentation from Bill Millington. But I just wanted you to get a feel of the team by having them introduce themselves and say a little word. I’ll start with Stephen.

S. O’Driscoll: Thank you very much Claude for those introductions. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It’s a pleasure to be here on the island with you this week. As Claude said my name is Stephen O’Driscoll and I’ll be the Halcrow Project Manager for the Geralds Airstrip Project. I guess I’m effectively Claude’s equivalent on the consultant’s side. And my responsibility will be for the overall delivery of the project and to ensure that the key project objectives—the delivery of a safe and affordable airstrip at Geralds is actually achieved.

Bill, I think, will talk in more detail about the programming issues but the target delivery date for this project is December 2003, which, in effect, condenses our consultancy commission into quite a short space of time. So my role will be to make sure that all the various components of the work are drawn together and the appropriate conclusions are drawn and taken forward. I’ll pass you on to David.

D. Dolan: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I’m David Dolan. My responsibility will be the drainage design of the airport and I too am pleased to be here. I’m not sure that I can have much answers at the moment.

M. Barnard: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michael Barnard. I am supposedly the expert in communications, radio and telephonic navigation aids, meteorological systems and also on airport ground lighting.

S. Young: Yes. Good night ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. My name is Stephen Young from the DFID office here on Montserrat. I’m pleased to be here tonight and to represent DFID here. I think and I hope that by doing so I demonstrate DFID’s commitment and support to the government of Montserrat in progressing this project, which we believe is vital to the sustained recovery of the island.

The brief that we’ve given Halcrow is to design an airport in accordance with international standards. Those international standards, which are the regulators’ methodology to make sure that any airport that we build is entirely safe in operation. Also those regulations ensure that we will then be able to license operators to come in and out of there providing the commercial links to the island that we need to let us get away from the presently heavily subsidized transport services and to move forward.

We will need that airport to be in place as quickly as possible. We need it to be constructed in accordance with the available finance. We need to ensure that environmental and social considerations are fully addressed in the way that the project is conceived and then implemented.

My role really is to work with the Project Manager, the Honorable Hogan, to ensure that the consultants are working in accordance with their brief, that they are meeting those requirements we set for them and also to ensure that there’s the timely release of the necessary funds to allow the project to go forward. So I am very pleased to be here tonight and as far as I can, I’ll be pleased to answer any questions as we go through. Thank you.

C. Hogan: Thank you very much Stephen. And folks, I’m just to tell you that timely release of money is good. We have some money from the DFID people already so we are front loaded and ready to roll. And just to get you thinking and get Bill a little less anxious, Bill will be presenting us with a PowerPoint presentation and he’ll be basically discussing where we are and where we are going. Bill Millington, May I ask you to please address the Montserrat public? Please help me to welcome Bill. (Applause)

B. Millington: Thank you. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. I thank Claude for alerting my audience to my state of anxiety this evening. In fact, those of you who joined a little late probably missed his reference to his vision of northern Montserrat turning green over the last five years, which reminded me that I felt that I turned a distinctly whiter shade of pale at being informed that only two days into our first visit, we’d be making this public presentation. So I think we deserve some prizes for bravery.

But in fact we are very well prepared for this situation because over the last—probably eight months, this process of selection of my company and its team has been quite a rigorous one. It was by no accident that we find ourselves here. And indeed I personally was here, as was mentioned, back in ’95 when I lead the team, which engineered the realignment of Bramble Airport before, of course, the circumstances brought the early closure of that project.

The firm, in fact, is no stranger to the Caribbean or island airport projects. The last few years, we’ve completed the project at Nevis for the runway strengthening and lengthening, which is obviously is extremely local and relevant. We’ve—currently, we’re helping the Government of Dominica to establish a sensible strategy for the development of its two-airport system and to steer the Government away from concept of massive airports, which are unaffordable and unwanted, towards a more sustainable and affordable development.

But further away from these islands we are actually completing a project on the island of (indecipherable) in the northwest islands of our own British isles, which poses similar challenges to this project here in that it is difficult to make a fully commercial case for projects—airport projects such as this but there are other factors which determine the need for these projects. And indeed that project is looking good and it will be a lifeline to—not just the islanders—but the economy, the tourism on the island and the west coast of Scotland.

But I’m reminded of a project where a different decision was made and to the detriment of the community. And that is on the island of St. Helena where some years ago we were asked to look at the potential for the establishment of a airport on an island, which never actually had an airstrip. And, in fact, I think I’m right in saying—by whatever definition, it is one of the most isolated communities on earth.

And to this day, the population is still struggling to and there is an exodus and degradation of the economic base of the island simply because accessibility to the island is so poor and that the bull was not taken by the horns and a decision made to develop air services.

Still, let’s not draw too many comparisons because the situation here on Montserrat is unique in many ways. And perhaps rather than dwell too much on history, I’ll come more to the point, which is to describe the process by which we propose to bring this quite fast-track design and development process to a speedy conclusion.

In fact, when we look at the program actually there’s hardly time to breathe. It’s an extremely fast-track program. We’re here today having only been commissioned, in fact, on the— in the first week of January. So we on our team, who are usually deployed in much less pleasant parts of the world, I must say, have converged here to make a rapid start to the project.

And in fact last week our geo-technical engineer, Mike Palmer who some of you probably met was here even before we’d dotted the “i”s and crossed the “t”s on our own contract with DFID. So we are ourselves extremely enthusiastic and willing to help Government of Montserrat complete this project in what—by any stretch of the imagination—would be a very ambitious program.

That isn’t to say though that there are some serious obligations upon a design team to satisfy all of the statutory requirements necessary, especially in an environment where, as was referred to, the spotlight actually of some of the regulatory authorities will be on this project. The events that occurred in New York in September have meant that there is additional, shall we say, attention being paid obviously to security.

But as if that wasn’t sufficient enough reason, this year actually probably will be—don’t quote me on this—but one of the first, if not the first international airport to be built after those events. So the authorities not just the Government of Montserrat themselves, which has the ultimate responsibility but also other agencies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association, the Department of Civil Aviation in Antigua—they will all be working doubly hard to make sure that there are no shocks and surprises when these plans are put together, that they’re adoptable, that they’re fully endorsable and safe from a security point of view.

And further more, there have been some other changes in the regulations, international regulations. We are very lucky in the world of airports in that we do enjoy a set of standard international regulations throughout and across the world, which help our cause. But there have been improvements in the regulations, sharpening of those regulations, which now we’re having to bring into force on existing and new projects—to some extent, makes our job easier because we are starting from scratch. But we’ve had discussions with the regulatory and licensing authorities to make sure they’re prepared for new sets of regulations, which are even tougher than those which exist.

And having traveled around the Caribbean, of course, I’ll not dwell on this point, but you’re all aware of the situation at some of the other airports, Canefield (I’m traveling to tomorrow actually) you know, we all hold our breath and cross our fingers when we are coming into some of those airports. And when we look at the situation there, there is room for dramatic improvement in standards.

We feel that here at Geralds, we have the opportunity, having being given actually a very good site to start from to get things right from the beginning and to actually improve upon – significantly improve upon the standards for even better airstrips in the region.

So I shall now describe the process, which is effectively a technical process. I’ll be leading a team of engineers, architects, environmentalists, planners in bringing this project to a healthy conclusion in a fairly tight program. And if you’ll bear with me, I’ll—in fact, I’ll just move over here—If I can grapple with the technology. This is the bit where I sort of turn white actually.

That’s Stephen Young here whose knowledge of the engineering factors and the operational factors through his involvement in the project over the last year or two is obviously of enormous value to a project team which is really starting on this project, technically at least, from scratch.

On my side, the Halcrow side, myself—I have 25 years of experience, 26 years of experience in this area of airport planning and design, more or less, throughout the world.

Stephen O’Driscoll, our Project Manager who has some 15 years of experience in this area, has learned his trade in Australia, has been involved in the work we are undertaking in Dominica at the moment.

Roy Marsden who is visiting in three weeks time whose task it will be to determine precisely and to pinpoint aspects of the operational layout, operational aspects and layout of the airport including runway length, aircraft operating procedures, air traffic control procedures, aerodrome classification, and aspects relating to the regulatory process.

Mike Barnard whose job it will be to determine the air traffic control and communications requirements for the project, the lighting, navigational facilities, precision approach path indicators, other avionics systems as we call them—all of the special systems that go with an international airport to ensure safe operating procedures.

Dave Dolan, our drainage specialist. The site itself is on a watershed. There are some significant drainage issues to be dealt with on that site, not simply from the point of view of moving water from the watershed to the east and west when the construction of the strip is completed but also dealing with runoff and erosion from the project embankments off of the runway apron system into the drainage gullies. It’s an area of engineering, which is quite significant.

Mike Palmer has been here last week. We considered that the geological aspects of this project could be very critical to its viability. Although some investigatory work had been done earlier, work that we’ve done in ’95 at Bramble demonstrated that there was a possibility that large boulders could exist not far beneath the surface of the site at Geralds, in fact, anywhere on the island and that itself could create problems and raise costs and might push the project beyond the limits of affordability.

Not only that, there is the question of how to deal with the compaction of material in order to ensure a long lifespan of the project itself. Early results from the trial pits undertaken last week are very promising. And it looks as if we’re not going to have too many serious problems from the geotechnical point of view.

In three weeks time our environmentalist will be visiting the island. The environmental and social issues have been stressed as being of significant importance to this project. We may only be talking about a handful of movements a day at the outset, but nonetheless, this is a new international airport. Those operations may in fact be quieter than current helicopter operations but there is still a responsibility on the design team, the Government of Montserrat to fully explain what the environmental impacts, in terms of noise and other construction-related impacts actually are.

And last but not least, Ken Cassell, our local associate. Ken worked with us on the previous project at Bramble. And Ken will be responsible for architectural aspects of the project once it’s been determined what will happen to the terminal building, which was built as a temporary structure for the helicopter operation and the air traffic control tower.

Now the objectives: We mustn’t lose sight of the fact, as I mentioned earlier, that this actually is a full international airport, not just a new facility but a facility that must comply with all of the standards and regulations laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization and that process of planning and designing an airport to meet international standards is a complex one even for a relatively small facility.

The objective of the project, of course, is to facilitate fixed-wing operations of Dash, Twin-Otter types and similar.

During the construction, the helicopter operation would continue and in fact special provision must be made in the planning of the works to ensure that that operation can continue safely whilst the contractor is moving tens of thousands of cubic meters of material and other major construction works.

The objective is, of course, that ultimately the project must be licensed by the licensing authority, which is a responsibility delegated to the Department of Civil Aviation. That the DCA of course are members or shall we say are subscribers to ICAO—follow ICAO regulations and that the standards that we will plan and design the airport to will comply with ICAO standards in accordance with DCA licensing procedures.

Now, it is also imperative that the aircraft procedures which are designed—and this is also part of the remit—are fully safe. Now, that is a complex process that involves the determination of aircraft procedures which provide operations in terrain, which in the vicinity of Montserrat is rugged, that therefore clearances on aircraft approaches all satisfy international requirements, that the utilization of the airport in terms of crosswind components fully complies with international requirements and that, therefore, from all points of view, the aircraft operation is deemed to be safe, in accordance with ICAO and other related agencies regulations.

But as I said that the helicopter service will be maintained during and potentially after construction. And that the project itself is compatible with surrounding and adjacent land uses. Proposals were afoot and I think are still anticipated for the construction of a cricket pitch adjacent to the project. It’s important that when we are planning and designing the facility that this airport is fully compatible from all points of view in terms of line level, accessibility, generally, compatibility with other land uses.

That the environmental impact is being fully explained, analyzed and the proposals are in place for the mitigation of any adverse environmental impacts and similarly social impact considerations, that being resettlement and other disruption either during construction or as a result of the permanent works.

Not least, that the project itself comes in within budget. A budget of $EC41 million is the prescribed budget for the work currently envisaged. It is the design team’s responsibility, absolutely, to ensure that that estimate is kept within and that must include contingencies. That must provide of course for all of the engineering findings that take place over the next few weeks and that it is an absolute that that cost estimate not be exceeded.

And that an effective dialogue is maintained between the team, Government of Montserrat and the major stakeholders and the public. The major stakeholders in this project, of course, will include not just the government but airlines, other operators, the community and other users.

That there should be a benefit to the local economy from the project and a transfer of skills during the project design and construction and that also as I’ll mention later that there should be a maximization that the potential for the use of local labor and materials on the project itself.

Now the program, as I said, is extremely tight. I must say that when we first saw this program, it was something of a shock to us. Although the project itself is not rocket science, it is nonetheless an important and strategic facility. As I’ve mentioned, it must comply with international standards and it’s very tight.

The advantage is that a lot of good work has been done up until this point. There is nothing in the work that we’ve seen to raise major concerns or doubts over the recommendations made. We feel we are starting on a good foundation and that was advantageous to us in our response to DFID that we could achieve this program. Otherwise, I think starting from scratch that would have been an extremely optimistic call.

The first phase of the project is effectively planning and design. Right at the front, a planning phase or a scoping phase. To begin with, investigations, firstly geotechnical investigations, which are now being completed, samples are currently being analyzed.

I’ll talk later about some of the investigations that we’re undertaking on meteorological aspects including wind and turbulence; studies which will confirm the runway length requirement for the operating parameters that we are looking at for the Twin Otter; and the normal planning studies that would take place for a project of this type, which is the specification, effectively, of the geometry of the airport, the location of the building and the separation of the various elements and the other parts of the infrastructure for the project.

Now, the first phase of that project having then reached its inception stage, would be completed within four months—from weeks 1-17 to complete at the end of May 2002. We have something like 10 weeks to complete the planning stage, which will basically nail down the project in terms of runway length, location, alignment and then a period of just 6 or 7 weeks to actually finalize the detailed design and specification.

So by the end of May, we will have completed Phase 1a, the detailed design. One and a half months or six weeks are allowed for the tender process. We would be expecting to be following international procurement regulations on this—or practices—on this project, which is effectively an open tender.

And we would expect to find ourselves by July 2002 in a position to be able to actually award the contract. Mobilization of the contract would start in August 2002

… specified in the tender documentation for completion in December 2003. Total duration of the project: 21 months.

The investigations and studies—we’re here actually on a familiarization process but it is an intensive working visit. Work has already started on the geotechnical work, as I’ve said, not just geotechnical mapping but topographical mapping is being refined. The topographical survey using a digital ground modeling essentially for the optimization of the major earthworks on this contract is quite a critical part of this early process.

The runway length requirements will be determined through performance studies, through operators and through experts in organizations such as the Civil Aviation Authority who’ll confirm our own studies on what the requirements are for runway length on a given set of sectors. Assumptions have to be made on what the likely sectors and destinations from Montserrat would be—principally, Antigua, of course, but other sectors may be examined.

And so the purpose of the operations and performance study is to determine exactly what the runway length requirements are at Geralds for a set of operating conditions, payloads and sector lengths.

The climatological study is something which is about to take place. There has been talk I know of concern over turbulence. There are two aspects to this: Firstly, crosswind. All airport planning studies have to determine a crosswind component to enable the operator to be assured of a good utilization. At large airports where there are more than—there’s a possibility of having more than one runway, crosswind is not a problem. On small airports, where only one runway is viable, the rules and regulations state that aircraft must be able to operate into that airstrip for no less than 95%, in this case, of the time.

Over three years of wind records currently are available and many more years of wind data through Antigua and Blackburne demonstrate over 98% utilization, which gives us a lot of confidence in utilization.

However, further work has to be done in order to demonstrate that turbulence on the approach—particularly on the approach from the west, obviously, is not a problem. And what we are doing there is undertaking a modeling process, which is effectively a physical modeling process which will simulate a whole range of conditions using a visual technique—using smoke traces but also a mathematical output to enable us to present to the licensing authorities such evidence as they will need to enable them to be confident that the operation is safe or that the conditions which give rise to turbulence can be anticipated and notified to operators in order to completely reduce those risks to acceptable levels.

And environmental scoping study, which will start in three weeks time—our expert visiting would examine the key issues and plan the mitigation measures.

Into the inception design, the preliminary studies I’ve just described will enable us to start with confidence on the basis of the design which is effectively the airport master plan layout that would determine effectively, the classification of the airport, line level, runway length, so on and so forth. So we’re building on those studies which we’ve undertaken in the first few weeks of this project to give us confidence in the final adopted design.

To begin with there’s a need to assess the suitability of what’s already there at Geralds. The terminal and the tower are the two obvious examples. Some work will have to be done to determine whether or not they can stay where they are. They are not—certainly the building is not particularly portable but the construction of a new building is not going to be cheap and so that is a factor and a balancing act that will have to take place to determine whether the building can stay where it is in the context of the runway location or whether it will have to be moved and reconstructed. It is quite likely that whatever solution is adopted that the air traffic control tower will have to be moved.

There are other areas of infrastructure including the existing road, which will clearly have to be diverted and we are looking again for the optimum solution on the diversion of that road, whether it be to the east or to the west of the runway is yet to be determined.

During this process, discussions will have to be held with the two funding authorities on what the procurement strategy will be. The procurement strategy being the process by which the works are tendered and awarded. Different funding authorities have different sets of rules and regulations; some are more pedantic than others. On the other hand, those that, shall we say, are less intensive and provide more freedom sometimes also give problems to us. So clarity will be sought on exactly what is the preferred procurement strategy for this project will be and how the different components of the project may be packaged and let either in one contract package, or in two or several.

That procurement strategy will also, of course, have to address the issue of the requirement for contractors to pay attention to maximization of local expertise in terms of construction and other skills.

During this process, it is highly likely that there will be a pre-qualification phase in which international and regional contractors will be asked to file their expressions of interest for parts or all of the components of this project. And those will be evaluated in line with the funders’ requirements in order for the short list of contractors can be submitted for approval to the Government of Montserrat.

Cost estimates, of course, have to be built up throughout this design process. We certainly want to identify any early warnings of overruns. We’ve already started doing that with the geotechnical investigations but it’s obviously vital that the Government is made aware of any fatal flaws in any of the assumptions made already, which might bring rise, give rise to major cost escalations.

Phase 1a continues with the preparation of a full environmental impact assessment and the addressing mitigation measures before we go into the detailed design process.

Now the detailed design process is what we, as a team, have all been trained for the last 20 odd years to effectively pour all of our attentions into. The planning phase is essential. It is there that things can go extremely wrong if that’s not bolted down properly but the skills of engineers in terms of designing airport terminals, pavements and special systems are brought into full effect during the detailed design process.

And that design process will specify exactly the materials used, precisely, the geometric alignment of the facility—the runway, taxiway and apron, arrangements for services—utilities, power supply, the diversion of the road, security fencing, lighting and the many other associated aspects of the project.

Design and building approvals need to be sought through Government departments before the tender and tender evaluation process.

As I’ve mentioned, pre-qualified firms, if this is the procurement strategy that we follow—it is not uncommon for a project of this size could attract pre-qualifications if it was let as one—from 20, 25 companies. It would be impractical to invite 20 or 25 companies to bid for a project like this. In our view, it would and it is quite likely that we would expect something like 6 companies to be tendering for a project of this size. So we’d be inviting tenders from firms which meet all of the pre-qualification criteria for a job of this type, whether it be let in one package or several.

During that process, contractors are encouraged to—and will obviously have a great desire to visit the site, inspect it, determine what the risks are in pricing that tender, asking the consultant and the Government of Montserrat whatever questions they may have on some areas of the works that are perhaps not too clearly explained in tender documentation, so clarifications are required.

The whole process is one by which what is being aimed at is the securement of good tenders which haven taken on board all the risks and are tenders from companies which we can be confident would deliver an excellent finished product. Obviously, one is also looking for tenders from companies that are not inclined to submit low tenders in order to win the job and then make excessive claims having being appointed. And this is the process by which tenders are evaluated when received, negotiated and awarded.

Recommendation would then be made to the funders for the award of the contract or contracts. Following the award, contract documentation is finalized and as I’ve said, we expect that by July or August we would be in a position to actually award this contract for start on site in August 2002.

The consultant does— moving towards the conclusion of my presentation—Consultants responsibilities don’t end with the completion of the design and the negotiation and award of the contract. During the entire construction period, Halcrow would have a representative, a resident engineer, assistant resident engineer, certification engineer present on site in order to make sure that the contractor is working in accordance with the specification and contract documentation.

One of the contractor’s responsibilities is to follow the environmental mitigation plan. Resident engineer’s responsibility is to approve the contractor’s working methods and program; to implement, supervise and certify the work; submit regular progress reports to the funders, the Government; ensure that the EMP is fully implemented and of course as we are here to do today, to keep the public informed through periodic meetings as to exactly what’s going on on-site, whether we are ahead of, behind, progress on budgets and what other concerns the public and the contractor and other agencies may have about the project. And ultimately to submit a maintenance and final project report before the process of final certification.

Once the process is physically complete, flight-testing is undertaken. That testing is—would be undertaken under the auspices of the DCA and the Government of Montserrat itself. The flight-testing process helps us to calibrate the equipment that’s been installed on the airport and to, of course, absolutely confirm that the operation is safe and compliant with international requirements before the license is applied for and received.

Now that’s a—as I said, perhaps a rather dry description of this planning and design process. It’s something we do every day. It’s something we’ve done at a number of airports of similar sizes throughout the world. We’re very familiar with the territory and what the challenges are. But I do say that this is quite a unique situation for us given the circumstances in Montserrat and, of course, the desire for Montserratians here to travel to and from the island and of course, Montserratians abroad to access the island, perhaps to return to the island permanently.

So, in summary, this is where we—what we are about: early identification of what the priority issues are. As I’ve said, we’ve already moved in that direction with the geotechnical work; that we believe to be a priority issue; what the key stakeholder requirements are and the commercial imperatives.

Delivering within time and on budget is an absolute. This has been made very clear to us in our terms of reference. There is no contingency over and above the budget specified and it is our job to make sure that this project comes in on budget. Otherwise, we might be in a St. Helena situation and get nothing.

Efficient coordination of all design and study components is a natural part of the process for the study team. Coordination with the Government of Montserrat, the Antiguan DCA, agencies to whom the DCA consult, of course, which include the Federal Aviation Administration and the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the EU and DFID, the two principal funders.

Ensuring that operating procedures are absolutely safe, certifiable, compliant, have been tried and tested. As I said at the beginning, there are some additional pressures on us following the events of September and some sharpening up of the codes and recommendations in that respect.

And last but not least, to address and to control the environmental impact and the social impact brought about by this project.

So that is obviously a very, I would say, a very brief sketch of what we are going to be doing between now and July this year in terms of design and what, hopefully, should the project receive—which, obviously, we hope it will—what our responsibilities will be until January 2004 in completing and handing over the project.

So thank you very much for listening—for your patience in listening and look forward to any questions you may have at the end of this session. Thank you. (Applause)

C. Hogan: Thank you very much Mr. Bill Millington. And ladies and gentlemen, at this point, it is my pleasure to basically invite you to engage us in an interactive segment. And the forum will continue as follows. You may ask questions of the panel and I’ll use my best judgment and ask one of the most competent of the experts to answer your question. We have five gentlemen in the significant areas that have been addressed and many of them will be able to embellish further some of the points made by Mr. Millington—which I found was quite informative and comprehensive. So I’m basically opening the floor to you and you can ask your questions from the center of the aisle there and we’ll take your questions unless you are totally convinced. Or you prefer for me to ask the first question?

R. Tyson: Good evening. In your terms of reference, you’re talking about a Twin Otter. Could you tell me what length of runway is required for a Twin Otter to comply to all the safety standards of an aborted flight if necessary?

B. Millington: It’s a complex answer because it depends upon exactly what the operating parameters are for the aircraft. And another complexity for those who followed the saga to date is that suggestions have been made that the aircraft, the Twin Otter can operate in either STOL or conventional mode.

Now, part of our work in the first 10 weeks is to rigorously scrutinize the assumptions on operating parameters for the Twin Otter and other aircraft types. First of all to iron out the question of whether or not the aircraft is going to be permitted or whether indeed, it’s even desirable for a Twin Otter to operate in STOL mode. I will say that the Civil Aviation Authority in the U.K. are not overly comfortable about STOL operations.

For those who perhaps are not aware STOL is Short-take-off and-landing, which was a method of operation brought about in Canada some 25 years ago and suited to a particular airport environment, suited also to a particular aircraft type at the time, a Dash-7.

The short answer to your question is that a detailed analysis of the runway length requirements for the Twin Otter in STOL and non-STOL mode is being undertaken, also to a range of destinations and a range of…

R. Tyson: I asked you what distance is laid down in the manual that is required for a Twin Otter …

R. Tyson: The runway length in STOL, the accelerated stop distance in an aborted flight and if you can’t meet those requirements, will you still build an airport?

B. Millington: Well, if you mean an aborted takeoff, all runways are designed for an aborted takeoff. That is one of the rules of the game. We have to design a runway for what we call the accelerated stop distance.

B. Millington: No. We’re flying to destinations or we would be but I don’t want to pre-empt this analysis. We’re looking at a range of payloads and range of, or certain range of situations and a range of operating circumstances for that aircraft.

And as I said, the complication that the aircraft can operate in STOL or conventional mode means that there is not one answer to the question of what the accelerated stop distance for the Twin Otter is. There are at least four different answers for that question. It very much depends upon exactly what the, shall we say, the route structure that we’re offering is, whether we’re flying to Antigua, only to Antigua, or whether we’re looking at St. Martin, whether we’re looking at Guadeloupe, whether we’re looking at Nevis, which we obviously would, if we were looking at Antigua. But what we have to do is to look at a matrix of operating parameters in order to determine what a safe runway length is for a …

R. Tyson: If you can’t, if you could not get a 650 or 695 meters, which the manual categorically states—and I’ve got it here with all the graphs and the logs.

R. Tyson: I am a pilot. I’m not a commercial pilot. But the safety aspect of this airport concerns everybody on Montserrat.

R. Tyson: If we’re going to spend, or you’re going to build an airport that will not be certified and licensed for a 19-seater Otter, and we end up with a 9-seater at a temporary airport for the next five years …

B. Millington: I think if we ended up with a 9-seater operation, we do not have a project. That is a clear requirement of our terms of reference. Our terms of reference require us to determine what the runway length requirements would be for a Twin-Otter operating on a full passenger capacity, whether it’s 17, 18, or 19.

Transcript of

PUBLIC FORUM ON GERALDS TEMPORARY AIRSTRIP

Broadcast live on Radio ZJB

Wednesday, January 30, 2002, Brades Pentecostal Church

Programme