a new bridge at Flatts in the near future.

And Alex Scott also said Government was continuing to put pressure on the US government to pay for base lands clean up -- and the maintenance of Longbird Bridge.

"We have had to put in place a pulley system to ensure that should Longbird Bridge ever be stuck open, we can close it,'' said Mr. Scott.

"But we did so without prejudice, meaning we deem the US to be fully responsible for the maintenance and the running, operation, keeping the bridge operating, until the year 2040.

"We have been to the US to pursue the whole issue not only of Longbird Bridge, but also the issue of the base lands in particular.

"Our advice from the US was to continue the lobbying process and to begin to publicly point out Government concerns about the US commitment to Bermuda and the clean up of the base lands.

"And that will include also the maintenance of Longbird Bridge.'' Mr. Scott also addressed recent calls for a new bridge to ease traffic flow through Flatts Village.

"Now, there have been discussions and talks about the viability of a bridge at Flatts and we said in the Budget debate that we certainly could not put priority on any other bridge development until the current bridges are maintained,'' said Mr. Scott.

He said the causeway was "long overdue for maintenance'' and some of the Island's bridges may even need to be replaced "in the not too distant future.

"Therefore we will now start a season of upgrading the current bridges and thoroughfares that we have,'' he said.

"Some of them are very important economic corridors. That is, we could never allow St. George's to be isolated because Longbird Bridge ceased to function and Longbird Bridge is also a direct route to the airport.'' And he added: "All of this will go before any serious consideration of a bridge at Flatts.'' However, Mr. Scott did not identify which bridges would be tackled first.

TRANSPORTATION TRA