Royal Haskoning DHV awarded cruise berthing tender

kirconnell projects $150 – $190 million price tag for project

International engineering and project management consultancy firm Royal HaskoningDHV has been tasked with the redesign and costing estimate for the contentious cruise berthing and port facility.

Tourism Minister Hon Moses Kirkconnell announced that the multinational firm had been awarded the tender for the project as he spoke with reporters during a during a media roundtable session on Wednesday (20 July) afternoon.

“With this tender award, the government will be acquiring the necessary information to speak from an informed position regarding the costs of the project. Additionally, this design work will help mitigate environmental damage done during construction by having the piers designed in deeper waters,” he told reporters.

Speaking with The Cayman Reporter on Thursday (21 July) Deputy Premier Kirkconnell said the civil engineering report is expected to be completed in late third quarter of this year.

So before the end of the year it will be completed,” Mr Kirkconnell said.

However, he declined to state if there will be shovels in the ground for the project before the 24 May, 2017 election.

“I look at this way, we are following the process to do what best practice has provided for us to do in moving the cruise berthing forward. We had a directive from Cabinet to report to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to look at the financing model with the cruise lines and then we also chose to look at putting the piers in deeper water or changing the angle of the piers to have less of an environment impact and that is when we asked Baird and that was the last engineering study,” he explained.

The results of that study, the Tourism Minister said, found that the piers could be put into deeper water.

“We cannot do anything until we know what the cost estimate will be on that, so that is what this civil engineering work is being done now by Royal Haskoning. It is looking at that what is the cost for the piers to go into deeper waters and then once we get that it gives us the ability to look at the financial modeling that we need,” Minister Kirkconnell contended.

While Mr Kirkconnell could not give a definitive figure that the project could cost he said the projected price tag for the entire cruise berthing facility could fall between $150 to $190 million.
The initial design contained a pier depth of 50-55ft. However, the new design would incorporate a depth of 85-90ft which the consultants said could be done.