Kralendijk – With the unveiling of an information board on the corner of Kaya Amsterdam and Kaya Leiden, Commissioner James Kroon yesterday gave the board of directors of the Public Entity Bonaire the signal for improving the roads around schools.

A start was made on improving the situation at the Papa Cornes Community School in Noort di Saliña. This is followed by Kolegio San Luis Bertran in Rincon and the schools Strea Briante and Rayo di Solo (including the daycare center) in Antriol.

The work, which will last a total of six months, consists of the asphalting of the currently unpaved parts of access roads and the repair of road sections in poor condition. The project not only contributes to greater (traffic) safety in the immediate vicinity of the schools, but also ensures considerably less dust nuisance for the students and the teaching staff.

Administrative agreement

A careful procedure preceded the decision to start with the implementation of the improvement. The need to improve the roads around the schools existed for some time, but until recently the finances were missing.

As a result of the Administrative Agreement that was concluded with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations at the end of 2018, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management promised a contribution of 3 million euros earlier this year. As a token of the Gentral Government’s confidence in the Executive Council, it is considered that outsourcing the project can be outsourced to an external implementation organization, but this has been deposited with the Spatial Planning and Development department of the public entity. This is in line with the objective, also included in the Administrative Agreement, of strengthening the executive power of the government apparatus.

Tender process

The Space and Development Department (DROB) has hired Caribbean Project Developers (CPD) to organize and supervise the tendering process, so that independence was guaranteed. After a transparent tendering procedure, the final assignment was assigned to Bonaire Wegenbouw Maatschappij (BWM) on the advice of CPD. The management and supervision of the correct execution of the work has been outsourced by the OLB to Civil Engineering Caribbean (CEC). In the preparation process, the Spatial Planning and Development Directorate worked among others with the Administrative Office Program Office. In addition, based on twinning, use was made of the knowledge and experience of the municipalities of Rotterdam and Alphen aan den Rijn.

“After we had received the commitment from the Ministry of I and W, we would have preferred to get started right away, but the quality should not lead to speed” said commissioner James Kroon. “In addition, within the framework of good governance, we wanted to adhere to the requirements of due care, all the more so as we demonstrate to the government that we can execute these types of projects very well in-house, with the help of professionals and partners we have selected ourselves. If you look at all the steps that needed to be taken, things went quickly”.