By Peter Binose

Now a broken Argyle cannot hide its secrets any more here is some more information.

It is now well established that the airport has so many obvious problems and perhaps latent problems too that it will be necessary to use the Maurice Bishop style of hiding the truth, and it’s not just false accounting and skullduggery I am referring to.

The airport began as a political election tool for the purpose of one man’s propaganda machine and his own political interests and those of his family dynasty. The airport was based on untruth and outright lies from conception to start and now even from start to finish as the finish approaches.

The citizens of Saint Vincent were told that there was a whole group of countries who wanted to help build an international airport for us at their expense. They were described as a ‘coalition of the willing’ but that turned out to be either the biggest lie of all or the willing changed their minds and became unwilling; I would guess the former sooner than the latter.

We were told that Trinidad was going to give us all the tar and bitumen for the macadam plant. Mexico was going to give us all the cement for the cement plant. The Cubans were going to plan and physically build the airport and the Venezuelans were going to fund the cost of the Cubans by paying all the wages of the Cubans working on the airport. All sorts of countries were to supply operation teams to operate the airport. The Venezuelans were to pay for all the plant and equipment. It was all half true or completely untrue. It was little more than a scheme to deceive the Vincentian people at home and in the Diaspora.

The Trinidadians gave us no tar and bitumen at all, not a gallon for free. The Mexicans gave us no cement, not a single bag. The Venezuelans never paid a cent towards the Cubans wages. The Venezuelans paid for $11 million worth of plant and equipment that is only 10% of the total cost. We Vincentians paid for all of those things afore mentioned. The government have taken loans to such an extent that the country will never be in the position to repay them. We were told that when the airport was finished we would not owe anyone anything what a lie that turned out to be. They sold all the Crown lands in Bequia to foreigners and used the money in the airport project. They sold more land in Canouan and that went into the airport project. They borrowed money from PetroCarib and that went into the airport project. They borrowed money from a number of other sources and that went into the airport project also. The Prime Minister travelled the world begging countries for money to help with the airport, which didn’t equate to much at all really, perhaps about 30 millions and a bad name internationally.

The airport itself is in some terrible trouble. Firstly remember this is a three year project that has so far taken ten years and is still not finished, and time is money.

The runway is built on filled swamp lands and spring water locations. All the land at the airport is required by international regulation to be compacted to 94% compaction. Land under the runway is required to have 100% compaction. The compaction should have taken place as each layer of fill was laid but they waited until it was all filled and in most cases then compacted the top layer only. Some areas have no compaction, some 45%, and none reaches the required 94 and 100% in the areas where required. The airport has no sewage plant and currently they propose pumping sewage straight into the sea. There is no VINLEC electricity supply yet. There are no oil or chemical traps to disallow a straight flow of the same into the sea. I am talking of toxic waste from the runway and apron areas; which they propose draining straight into the sea.  The wind factor is such a problem that at certain times it will be impossible for aircraft to land there. The nine miles of perimeter fence is rotting out fast. The tunnels under the runway cannot be cleaned out and are full of boulders. The galvanized tunnel lining is rusting out already. The Yambou river crossing tunnels needs removing and a bridging system installed. The new fire engines are also beginning to rust out in the sea blast. The aircraft air-bridges are deteriorating having been bought 3 years too soon. They have dumped on the airport perimeter over a million cubic feet of toxic waste which includes tar, oil, diesel fuel and hydraulic fluids. In an attempt to hide it they have been trying to cover the polluted areas with soil and spoil. The polluted and poisonous soil and pollutant substances are now directly linked to the sea and pollution has been found on lobsters, there have been reports of surface fish tasting of diesel, and sea birds rendered a terrible death. There have been several people caught involved in embezzlements at the airport, they have gone scot free and the whole matter hushed up. There are no dedicated rescue boats as required for a new coastal airport, there are no rescue helicopters or hospital helicopters, no emergency capable hospital on the whole island, no hospital within the required time and distance of the airport. Search and rescue is left to our coast guard who in the past have proved next to useless.

The land at Argyle on which the airport is built has not been paid for; there are still more than 60 land owners who have been begging for their money for up 8 years now. The future may see unpaid landowners picketing the offices of airlines.

Perhaps LIAT will have the biggest problem because between the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and Ian Brunton at the time CEO of LIAT they chose the wrong aircraft, the ATR. Those aircraft simply cannot cope with our extra severe adverse wind conditions. They often have to leave luggage and passengers behind during windy times.

First I will present to you what is still happening or not happening with the tunnels under the runway at Argyle.

 

The day after storm Mathew I took photos of the tunnels partially blocked with stone, boulders and silting.

 

 

Then I submitted AIA photos showing them clearing the tunnel mouths where the Yambou enters them.

They cleared the mouths of the tunnels where the Yambou enters and perhaps between ten and twenty feet into the tunnels. But the tunnels are still rammed with rocks and boulders.

Now I am submitting photos of the other end of the tunnels taken on Friday 15 October 2016. These photos show that they have not attempted to clear the rocks and boulders that came through the tunnels neither have they attempted to unblock inside the tunnels, because they cannot. The tunnels are a crisis. The Cuban engineer advised of the inherent problems and he was overruled.

On Friday I went to the other end of the tunnels where the water leaves them. I was greeted by a huge pile of rocks in the river. In the photo you can see that the galvanized sheeting is already starting to rust out.

 

This is the other end of the tunnel besides the rocks you can see the rust on the lining.

But the latest state secret is the road from Stubbs to Rawacou being relocated at the cost of multi millions of dollars because some bird brain sanctioned putting it in the wrong location. They have started digging a new road in a different position. Why? Yes you may well ask Why? And here is the reason.

The road they built was above the landing lights almost level with the runway; this means that the lights of vehicles driving on the road at night could confuse a pilot at the most critical moment prior to touching down. The road should have been put at a much lower level to ensure no confusion takes place. So now they are rushing to try and hide the error.

Here are photos of the new road being built below the end of the runway. I took these last Sunday because they have been working overtime to try and hide the problem from perhaps me in particular. Knowing that I will be reporting the matter to the readers.

 

The white trucks at the top of the photo are on the section of the road which will be closed. The red backed truck in lower right corner is on the new road being built.

A machine digging a section of the new replacement road.

Now here is where the fun starts because the new section of road is being installed on land that is 100% filled and land which has had no compaction whatsoever. This is reclaimed land where they put thousands of huge boulders into the sea and then filled over them with soil and spoil from the workings. There could be a serious land slippage in this area anytime soon. How stable this land is I do not know but I am sure some engineer will let us know sooner or later, and it will not be their engineer either.

Truck and machines working on section of new replacement road.

 

New roads have been set in adverse positions to runways in other countries, even across runways, and what is usually done traffic control lights and hydraulic or electric barrier arms shut off the road in good time when an aircraft is making its approach. The cost of that would not have exceeded $50,000 but building the new road is estimated to cost $3-5 million dollars. Building this big new elaborate road on dodgy ground may be very nice or not very nice for those handful of people using it, but very expensive for the citizens. Perhaps traffic control lights and barriers would have been a little inconvenient, but the cost would be peanuts in relation to what they are now doing.

 

Everything they do, everything they touch turns out to be a crisis creator. Why? Well I believe it’s because of the input of politicians and the overruling of engineers. The sheer stupidity of those managing the project. The know-all-know-nothing people employed and the fact that they are all driven by politics in the Maurice Bishop Marxist style, a political mould created by the Cubans that has been the ruination of everything they touch at Argyle.

I leave you with this; would they be spending money willy-nilly if it was their own? I doubt it very much.

One thing for sure our grandchildren and great-great grandchildren are deep in debt before they are even born.

The major problem is that any airport MUST be certified by relevant aviation authorities, whether American, British, European or whatever.  And all these built-in and even inherent problems will be taken into consideration, not just wind analysis. I always thought that one did wind studies FIRST in order to determine where and how the airport should be constructed. But obviously not when it is made to a model created by the Cubans and their political converts.

Without the acceptance by aviation authorities no commercial aircraft can fly to a new airport.  For a start they would not even get insurance, much less permission to transport passengers.

So when our powers-that-be talk about being in discussions with commercial airlines, and that we have 5 or however many lined up waiting to sign on the dotted line they are “taking liberties with the truth”.  NOTHING can be done until the airport is certified safe and the Cuban chief engineer has refused to do that because his safety instructions and qualified advice was not followed.

 

Cc to all airlines flying the Caribbean

all airline associations

all embassies in the Caribbean.

Lloyds of London aircraft insurance section.

all online media houses

all printed Newspapers in the region.

IMAGES: Supplied – Peter Binose

END

DISCLAIMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com

See also iNews cayman related story published October 17 2016 “Peter Binose: Argyle Airport in secret crisis yet again” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/peter-binose-argyle-airport-in-secret-crisis-yet-again/