Dominica's Salisbury Box Culvert Crossing nears completion as part of Road Edge Rehabilitation Projects

Sharing a key update on the Road Edge Rehabilitation Project along the Edward Oliver Leblanc and Nicholas Liverpool highways, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, said work on the Salisbury Box Culvert Crossing was nearing completion. It is part of the rehabilitation project.

The crossing, once completed, will give motorists greater access and better road networks. Contracts related to the project were signed by the Dominican government in October 2024 for seven crucial interventions to boost infrastructural growth, something the Skerrit-led administration has focused on time and again. 

Work under 7 interventions

Under the contract, the work on the rehabilitation of the road edge is currently underway in Belles and it will enhance the road network apart from generating economic opportunities for the local people. A retaining wall is being built in Bioche to improve response against the effects of climate change. The contract also includes the rehabilitation of Hillsborough Box Culvert and the Box Culvert Crossing at St. Joseph. 

The rehabilitation of the road edge in Penrice and work on the Roger Retaining Wall on Imperial Road is also underway. 

Chris Walter, general manager of Caribbean Concrete Ltd, a local company which has been given the design of the culvert bypass in Salisbury and the responsibility to build it, said the work began in December 2024 and around 70 per cent of the construction of the culvert has been completed. 

In a video shared by PM Skerrit, he said the entire work is likely to be completed by the end of March 2025. 

Walter added that heavy rain in December forced them to make an alternative bypass to allow the traffic flow without affecting the work. They first tried to make a small bypass for the traffic but it did not work out. 

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Contracts for seven interventions signed in October 2024

In October last year, the Dominican government officially entered into the contracts to begin repair work on edge failures along Edward Oliver Leblanc Highway and Nicholas Liverpool Highway. The agreement was formalised during a ceremony held at the finance ministry’s conference room. 

Fidel Grant, Dominica’s public works minister called the agreement a “significant step” in the Caribbean island-nation’s recovery efforts from the natural disasters of the mid and late 2010s. He also revealed that seven interventions will see a total cost of more than $5.8 million. 

“Seven years later, we continue to restore and repair our vulnerable road network,” he said in the context of the deadly hurricanes that hit Dominica in 2017. 

Prime Minister Skerrit said then that his government had been saving funds since the COVID-19 pandemic to undertake such necessary infrastructure projects. 

“We established a vulnerability risk reduction fund and have been saving half a million dollars every month since 2022,” he remarked, adding the savings would be used to fund the current roadworks.

The Dominican government has reiterated its commitment to enhancing the country’s infrastructure resilience, maintaining road safety, and creating long-term solutions to withstand future climate-related challenges.

Some of the island-nation’s major road repair projects include the East Coast Road Rehabilitation Project and the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Project.