CHECK THE SNAP TIES IN THE SMITH’S POINT WALL

16 September 2017

Senators Fred Mitchell and Michael Darville at Smith’s Point 16 September

Photo 1 of the wall done by Smith Construction

Photo two of the work done by Waugh Construction

Here is the point that the village observers make about the Smith’s Point wall.  Background: back in June, the People’s time government of the FNM, took the contract for building the Smith’s Point Seawall away from a PLP contractor and gave it to an FNM contractor.  Three months later, just before Hurricane Irma hit, Senators Michael Darville and Fred Mitchell visited the site to warn that nothing had been done since the contract had been taken away and that what had been done did not revisit or change what the previous contractor had done.  Therefore the FNM’s claim that it was some lack of competence that led to the cancellation did not hold true.  Senators Mitchell and Darville went back on Saturday 16 September after the hurricane and saw that some action had been taken and thankfully the hurricane did not cause major disruption. But the pair warned another hurricane is on the way and the wall is still not done.  But what was pointed out is that the “snap ties” that are used to hold the forms together to pour the concrete and then are supposed to be removed are still in that portion of the wall built by the Waugh Construction group.  The Smith Construction group used PVC pipes, put the steel through the pipes and when the forms hardened they withdrew the steel snap ties.  This present company is simply leaving the steel in the wall and corrosion is now obvious because they are not using stainless steel, nor are they using the technique of the Smith Contractor.  This needs to be checked by the Ministry of Work engineers before there is not another catastrophe. The photo one shows the work by Smith, the photo two shows the work by Waugh.