Major Redevelopment Coming for South Dock, Local to be hired says Premier

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 6, 2023 – The South Dock port will undergo major upgrades soon, and the money will be going into TC Islander pockets.

“Our ports are critical to domestic and international trade and growth of the TCI economy. Their modernisation and expansion are a critical component of VISION2040 plans. I am excited to tell you that a contract for the construction of Phases 1 and 2 of the South Dock Port

Redevelopment has been signed with a local company,” said Premier Washington Misick at the State of The State Address last Monday, February 27th.

Describing the redevelopment as a ‘game changer’ he said it would significantly increase economic benefits to the country for several reasons including that vessels with larger loads will be able to berth. This, the premier said, would reduce the shipping costs and the cost of doing business and cost of goods.

The lack of a deep water harbour which prevents larger vessels from making a TCI a single stop on a longer route (which would be cheaper) instead of the single destination of a smaller vessel has been cited as one of the reasons why grocery costs in the TCI are so expensive.

Carl Simmons, owner of Cargo Express which is the Turks and Caicos agent for Tropical Shipping said in a radio interview said, “We are lacking a deep water harbour, if we had [one] we could have gotten ships with more capacity to bring containers from the US drop off a percentage of them to Grand Turk or Provo and continue on to another island but we cannot consider that option at all so the cost goes up again.”

While a deep water harbour has not been confirmed the works on South Dock include:

• Construction of a new general cargo terminal with two berths, to accommodate two vessels at the same time.
• Construction of a massive container yard for general cargo and bulk materials.
•  Construction of internal roads and installation of a new scale.
•  Construction of a safe-water drainage system

“We are delivering to facilitate commerce,” he said.

However, how many jobs are expected to be created during this construction phase and the redevelopment’s price tag were not stated during the speech, which was carried live from Brayton Hall.