A Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study for the Scar­bor­ough Ur­ban Re­de­vel­op­ment Project has been com­mis­sioned by the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture, Quar­ries and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment (DIQUD). The pur­pose of the study is to un­earth in­for­ma­tion that will af­fect the fi­nal de­sign for a new City of Scar­bor­ough which in­cludes a new port fa­cil­i­ty.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture, Quar­ries and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment :

A Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study for the Scar­bor­ough Ur­ban Re­de­vel­op­ment Project has been com­mis­sioned by the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture, Quar­ries and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment (DIQUD) – the find­ings are to be de­liv­ered in March, 2023. In­fra­struc­ture Sec­re­tary, Trevor James said, “…one of the first notes that was passed [by the Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil] was the note to en­gage Jmetrix to start this fea­si­bil­i­ty.  

We are com­mit­ted to de­liv­er­ing on our plan to re­build Scar­bor­ough. We are com­mit­ted to de­liv­er­ing a new port fa­cil­i­ty. We think this crit­i­cal to our au­ton­o­my and we will pur­sue it 150%.” Lead De­sign Con­sul­tant, Joshua Stew­art, Jmetrix will be sup­port­ed by na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners such as Ham­burg Port Con­sult­ing (HPC); In­ros Lack­n­er SE, Bre­men Ger­many; Smith Warn­er In­ter­na­tion­al; Caribbean Ur­ban­ism and Ar­chi­tec­ture, Re­CUA; RHWS Ar­chi­tects, Ham­burg; and GSAL De­sign Ltd. The team is charged with un­der­tak­ing re­search on key el­e­ments of city and coastal de­vel­op­ment. 

It is pur­posed to un­earth in­for­ma­tion that will af­fect the fi­nal de­sign for a new City of Scar­bor­ough. This week, the team ini­ti­at­ed post pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions meet­ings with key stake­hold­er bod­ies and re­gion­al gov­ern­ments. Shar­ing on what was dis­cussed, James said some time was spent on iden­ti­fy­ing the short-term project that can be de­liv­ered to im­prove the qual­i­ty of the city.  

This was fol­lowed by a di­a­logue on the im­por­tance of the port to na­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture and de­vel­op­ment and the vary­ing modal­i­ties that can come to bear in the city. He added, “The whole de­sign is meant to in­cor­po­rate all the at­ten­dant fea­tures to build the city in­to some­thing that we can be proud of. So we dis­cussed the road in­fra­struc­ture; the ver­ti­cal in­fra­struc­ture that might be re­quired; the pop­u­la­tion growth that will de­ter­mine what we do where; … the mod­el­ling of the ocean – con­se­quent­ly the study by Smith Warn­er, all of that we dis­cussed in a view to build­ing out hope­ful­ly an all- en­com­pass­ing city that caters to a new To­ba­go.” 

The Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study is due in six months’ time, fol­low­ing which, fur­ther pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions will be held. In the in­ter­im, James is en­cour­ag­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans to be­gin prepar­ing them­selves for the op­por­tu­ni­ties that are like­ly to emerge from with­in the lo­cal econ­o­my.