Tau­reef Mo­hammed

The ex­pect­ed com­ple­tion date for restora­tion works on the Red House has been pushed back to Jan­u­ary 2016, the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of T&T (Ude­cott) has stat­ed.In Feb­ru­ary, based on in­for­ma­tion from Ude­cott, the T&T Guardian re­port­ed that the restora­tion project would be com­plet­ed by the first quar­ter of 2015.The project was ini­tial­ly ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed by De­cem­ber 2014, the T&T Guardian re­port stat­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to Ude­cott, the dis­cov­ery of hu­man bones and project man­age­ment is­sues caused de­lays.In April, the hu­man bones, which date be­tween 430 AD and 1390 AD, were dis­cov­ered dur­ing ex­ca­va­tion work on the build­ing lo­cat­ed on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain."Work has slowed con­sid­er­ably due to the re­cent dis­cov­ery of the bones. We had to pause be­cause the area is crit­i­cal to peo­ple in T&T," a source from Ude­cott said.

At present, an ar­chae­o­log­i­cal team is work­ing in the area where the bones were dis­cov­ered, while work in the sur­round­ing ar­eas con­tin­ues, the source said.De­scrib­ing the work be­ing done on the icon­ic build­ing as "pre­lim­i­nary," the Ude­cott source said the "re­al" restora­tion work hasn't start­ed.The Ude­cott of­fi­cial said de­signs are cur­rent­ly be­ing for­mu­lat­ed by a his­tor­i­cal ar­chi­tect.

Af­ter the de­signs are com­plet­ed ten­ders for the restora­tion work would go out, the source said.Ac­cord­ing to an e-mail from Ude­cott, work un­der Ude­cott's tenure be­gan in 2005 and has cost the com­pa­ny $84,180,037.04 so far.Restora­tion works on the "home of the Par­lia­ment" start­ed un­der the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Prop­er­ty De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (Nipdec) more than ten years ago, ac­cord­ing to news­pa­per re­ports.

In 2011, the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment an­nounced that tax­pay­ers had spent $200 mil­lion over an eight-year pe­ri­od on the restora­tion of the his­toric build­ing.Based on in­for­ma­tion on Nipdec's Web site, the "full-scale" restora­tion was ex­pect­ed to cost $100 mil­lion over a five-year pe­ri­od.In Oc­to­ber 2011, the Par­lia­ment moved to the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, to clear the way for restora­tion work.

Pre­lim­i­nary works done on the build­ing in­clude con­struc­tion of an un­der­ground plant room at the west­ern side of the com­pound, con­struc­tion of a tem­po­rary roof above the South Cham­ber and the South Link, di­lap­i­da­tion sur­veys, de­mo­li­tion of mod­ern-era con­struc­tion el­e­ments, as­bestos re­moval and ex­ca­va­tion of the foun­da­tion.

Restora­tion Up­date

�2 Stollmey­er's Cas­tle: ex­pect­ed com­ple­tion–De­cem­ber 2013; 90 per cent com­plete

�2 White­hall: scope of works be­ing de­vel­oped

�2 Pres­i­dent's House: ex­pect­ed com­ple­tion–2015; pre­lim­i­nary work to start in Au­gust

�2 Red House: ex­pect­ed com­ple­tion–Jan­u­ary 2016; pre­lim­i­nary work on­go­ing.'

MORE IN­FO

Al­though work has re­cent­ly slowed, the restora­tion of Stollmey­er's Cas­tle is ex­pect­ed be com­plet­ed by De­cem­ber of this year.The build­ing is one of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en and is lo­cat­ed at Queen's Park Sa­van­nah West, Port-of-Spain.Ac­cord­ing to an e-mail from Ude­cott, restora­tion work be­gan in Jan­u­ary 2008 and is now 90 per cent com­plete.In an in­ter­view, a source from Ude­cott said work on the build­ing has slowed be­cause the com­pa­ny was await­ing fund­ing from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

"The fund­ing is ex­pect­ed any time now. Once we re­ceive that fund­ing, work should be com­plet­ed with­in three months," the source said. The con­trac­tor is do­ing re­me­di­al work which in­volves cor­rect­ing mi­nor de­fects in and around the build­ing, the source said.The his­toric build­ing, orig­i­nal­ly called Kil­lar­ney, was ini­tial­ly ear­marked to be used as a "pro­to­col house" for vis­it­ing dig­ni­taries.

How­ev­er, ac­cord­ing to the source, the use of the his­toric build­ing has not been fi­nalised, but the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent has ex­pressed in­ter­est in it.The Ude­cott source said the scope of works for White­hall is still be­ing de­vel­oped and restora­tion work has not start­ed.

"Once the scope of works is fi­nalised, a bud­get will be de­ter­mined and then the project will go out for ten­der."

Mean­while, restora­tion work on Pres­i­dent's House, which falls un­der the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture, is ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed in the lat­ter part of 2015, ac­cord­ing to Zan­im Ali, di­rec­tor of con­struc­tion at the min­istry.Asked if any work has been done on the build­ing lo­cat­ed on Cir­cu­lar Road, St Ann's, he said: "No work has been done ex­cept for a tem­po­rary roof over the col­lapsed part."

Ali said he is "hop­ing" that pre­lim­i­nary work, which in­volves build­ing a tem­po­rary roof over the struc­ture, would be­gin in Au­gust.The ten­der­ing process for the com­plete restora­tion, he said, would be­gin in No­vem­ber.Ac­cord­ing to a T&T Guardian re­port in March, Ali said work was ear­marked to be­gin in May.Ali said the lay­out of the Pres­i­dent's House has been fi­nalised but needs to be val­i­dat­ed by Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Thomas Aquinas Car­mona.

The ini­tial de­sign of the re­stored build­ing, which was com­plet­ed in 2007, had to be changed due to the col­lapse of part of the build­ing in May 2010, he said.The de­signs are now be­ing fi­nalised, he added.

Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent

Stollmey­er's Cas­tle and White­hall have been ear­marked by the Cab­i­net and Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Thomas Aquinas Car­mona as prospec­tive lo­ca­tions for the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent.In a tele­phone in­ter­view, Napi­er Tillai, ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor to the Pres­i­dent, said Cab­i­net has been in dis­cus­sions with the Pres­i­dent on the is­sue of the lo­ca­tion of the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent.

"Two pos­si­ble lo­ca­tions came up–Stollmey­er's Cas­tle and White­hall–but no de­ci­sion has been made and dis­cus­sions are still on­go­ing."At present, Tillai said, the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent is lo­cat­ed at Cir­cu­lar Road, St Ann's.In March, Min­is­ter of Hous­ing, Land and Ma­rine Af­fairs, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, de­scribed White­hall as a good fa­cil­i­ty for the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent.