Af­ter nine years - Par­lia­ment is back at the Red House..

Politi­cians, as well as the Pres­i­dent, are ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er their speech­es at the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the Red House this morn­ing..

The open­ing be­gins at 10.30 am, with an in­spec­tion of a guard of ho­n­our by Pres­i­dent Paula Mae-Weekes out­side of the Red House on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain.

Mem­bers of both the Sen­ate and House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will meet in their re­spec­tive cham­bers in the South and North wings of the build­ing. Sen­a­tors will then come to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s North wing where Pres­i­dent Weekes’ will de­liv­er a fif­teen-minute ad­dress, launch­ing the re­stored seat of Par­lia­ment.

Mem­bers of the ju­di­cia­ry, the diplo­mat­ic corps and oth­er dig­ni­taries have been in­vit­ed to the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing.

It will be the Pres­i­dent's first ad­dress to Par­lia­ment as there were no cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ings of Par­lia­men­tary ses­sions since she was elect­ed Pres­i­dent in March 2018.

Af­ter Weekes’ ad­dress, in­vi­tees will gath­er in the ro­tun­da of the Red House - the mid­dle of the struc­ture - where ad­dress­es are sched­uled to be de­liv­ered by House Speak­er Brigid An­nisette-George, Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley and Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar.

Mem­bers of the me­dia will then be tak­en on a tour of the Red House.

The build­ing al­so hous­es of­fices for pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers of the Sen­ate and House as well as for the Prime Min­is­ter, Op­po­si­tion Leader and Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion House lead­ers.

The Red House is one of sev­er­al his­toric build­ings com­plet­ed by the Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion this term. Oth­ers are White­hall, the Pres­i­dent’s House and the prime min­is­ter’s of­fi­cial To­ba­go res­i­dence. Work on Mille Fleurs is al­so on-go­ing.

Ude­cott of­fi­cials said the Red House has come in with­in the bud­get­ed $44 mil­lion mark. A de­tailed break­down of costs is ex­pect­ed to be de­liv­ered in Par­lia­ment soon.

Par­lia­ment op­er­a­tions had been re­lo­cat­ed to the Wa­ter­front Com­plex - oc­cu­py­ing al­most 11 floors - un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion in 2011 while the Red House un­der­went restora­tion. Pri­or to that, un­der the Man­ning PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion work had al­ready start­ed on the Red House’s roof and oth­er as­pects.

Yes­ter­day, hun­dreds of work­ers - in­clud­ing many for­eign­ers - were fi­nal­is­ing the re­moval of scaf­fold­ing, equip­ment and oth­er items from the site. Of­fi­cials said some crews worked through the night in re­cent days to­wards com­ple­tion.

Oth­er work­ers were putting fin­ish­ing touch­es on fa­cil­i­ties for to­day’s func­tion. Tents have been erect­ed on the Red House’s East­side for some in­vi­tees.

Hart Street which was closed while con­struc­tion was un­der­way, was be­ing cleared. This will be re­opened to pedes­tri­ans and traf­fic.

Knox Street which was al­so closed per­ma­nent­ly since 2017 - and was used as a stag­ing area for work - was al­ready clear. Tents were al­so erect­ed in there for guests. That road­way which will no longer fa­cil­i­tate traf­fic, now holds planters flank­ing the Eter­nal Flame. The lat­ter was re­lo­cat­ed to Knox Street from the Red House’s East lawn.

Along­side the Eter­nal Flame is a mon­u­ment to the First Peo­ples. This stands over the spot where the re­mains of 60 of TT’s ear­li­est in­hab­i­tants - which were found be­neath the Red House dur­ing 2013 restora­tion work - were rein­terred last year. Large gates have closed off Knox Street to traf­fic. But of­fi­cials said a pedes­tri­an walk-through will re­main.

One of the biggest changes which has led to the build­ing’s new ex­pan­sive look is the re­moval of the thick hedge which had for years sur­round­ed the Red House - hid­ing some of the fa­cade - as well as the re­moval of trees which were on the grounds.

A large black-paint­ed iron fence now sur­rounds the Par­lia­ment. Lawn grass has al­so been plant­ed in places as well as edged bor­der gar­dens.

An­oth­er new facet cre­at­ed is a base­ment lev­el ac­com­mo­dat­ing tech­ni­cal/me­chan­i­cal equip­ment and an­oth­er un­der­ground area.

Sen­a­tors, who will use the South wing cham­ber, will have ac­cess from a south­ern en­trance as well as the east and west en­trances. The South wing, which had been closed for decades, will now be used in­clud­ing sim­u­la­ta­neous­ly with House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ sit­tings when nec­es­sary, gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials have said.