The idea of building a bridge over the Caribbean Sea to connect Trinidad with Tobago is not a new one.
However, it may not be one that the current administration is troubling itself with at the moment.
As Opposition Leader in 2015, Dr Keith Rowley said no amount of money in the Western Hemisphere and no engineering known to man could pay for or build such a bridge which would have to at least be 30 kilometres long.
Two years later, the Chinese Government is mere months away from opening such an engineering marvel in the Eastern Hemisphere. It’s called the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
The 55-kilometre roadway, reportedly the longest in the world, will connect three areas which were previously accessed by ferries, cutting down transportation time significantly.
In fact, according to Chinese officials, the journey between Zhuhai and Hong Kong will now be 30 minutes compared to the three hours it took by ferry. Construction started in 2009 over the Ling Ting Sea.
Guardian Media was given a tour of the yet to be opened causeway and officials were asked: “Can this be built over the Caribbean Sea?’”
While officials said they were unaware of the exact specifications of the water’s activity in that area they believe it can be done.
The officials also pointed out that the asphalt used to construct the roadway came from the Pitch Lake in Trinidad.
The project did come at a high price—around US$15 billion.
T&T could access some funding from the Chinese Government itself for a project of that magnitude. At a press conference in Guangdong Province, China’s strongest economic area, Deputy Director General of the Guangdong Department of Commerce, Wang Tao said one of the province’s proposals for strengthening ties with Latin America and the Caribbean would be to give more support from national funds for infrastructural development.
While he could not give an exact figure of how much funds are in that reserve he did say funding would be in the form of credit from China’s National Development Bank or its Import Export Bank.
A more precise figure was given by the Chinese President Xi Xinping, in 2013 when as part of his One Belt One Road Initiative, he announced that up to US$3 billion was available to Latin America and the Caribbean for projects like this.
The bridge will also be a toll road and those funds are expected to be used for maintenance.
There have been counter-arguments for such a project. Former Transport Minister John Humphrey told the T&T Guardian last month that a bridge would not be worthwhile because of the country’s small population while senior lecturer in transportation engineering in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the University of the West Indies’ St Augustine campus, Dr Trevor Townsend said it would require major capital investment and incur high recurring expenditure.
Both believed a ferry service was still the best option.
If T&T does decide to look into this option, it would be a costly venture that would require several years and immense manpower. However, given the inconsistencies with the existing ferry service on the seabridge, the answer in fixing the connection between two close land masses might lie in the Far East.
AKASH SAMAROO
IN CHINA