A One Bermuda Alliance government would double down on fixing the island roads and include plans to engage private contractors in its strategy, the party said today.

Craig Cannonier, the OBA’s candidate for Devonshire South Central (Constituency 12), highlighted that if elected at the next General Election, the party will make sure that it fast tracks plans to pave all roads.

He said: “I don’t think that there has ever been a time where riding on the road has become like an obstacle course.

“I mean if you’re on a bike, you’re ducking and weaving around trees, you’re moving out the way of metal plates, pot holes.”

At a press conference, Mr Cannonier announced the party’s plans to address infrastructure issues.

In July 2023, Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, said it would cost the taxpayers $100 million to resurface all the island’s roads.

He told the House of Assembly that the estimated cost of paving a single kilometre of roadway on both lanes was $600,000 — although the majority of private roads were single lane and therefore cheaper to resurface.

While he acknowledged the $100 million cost to fix the roads, Mr Cannonier said that given the pace at which work is being done, “it’s going to take years before we get all of the road paved”.

Mr Cannonier commended the work done by the public works teams to fix the roads but noted that private firms can also help.

He said: “What we now need is private assistance, we’ve got other firms that can pave the roads as well.

“We need to take them on so that we can speed up the recovery of our roads.

“The idea is, if that is the number one thing we are hearing on door steps, we have to listen.”

In an appeal to voters, he added: “It is important to you when you tell us you want your road paved, that we get the roads paved.”

Mr Cannonier claimed that works carried out on the roads presently were tied to the upcoming General Election.

He added: “What happened to the years before? What happened since 2017?

“We even had some of our civil servants complain that they wanted to get out there and pave the roads.”

Colonel Burch said last February that he believed successive governments were at fault for neglecting infrastructure upgrades.

On bridges, Mr Cannonier said today that major attention must be placed on fixing and ultimately replacing the Swing Bridge in St George’s.

The Government announced last month that the bridge was to close for repairs until the end of March.

The ageing structure, which links St George’s with St David’s, was built in 1964 and has required rehabilitation works three times in recent years.

Mr Cannonier said: “That bridge needs to be replaced and we need to fast track ourselves in getting into that position.”

He said while he is unsure of the Government’s position on replacing the structure, he said priority should be placed on fixing it to ensure the bridge can handle high volumes of traffic, including trucks.

In its Pre-Budget Report, released last December, the Ministry of Finance said that capital spending for 2025-26 was proposed to increase by $33 million to $145 million.

It added that the boost would “fund an increase in the pace of road repaving following the installation of the new asphalt plant”.

The ministry’s report added that the allocation would also allow work to begin on the replacement of Swing Bridge — scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2025 — among other projects.

OBA plans also feature efforts to ensure affordable housing for residents, including young people.

Mr Cannonier said: “We have got to start looking at new technology that allows us to build homes that are sturdy, that can resist hurricanes.

“We’ve got some that are already built, we’ve got to start looking at properties that we can take and make real affordable housing happen.”

He criticised the Government’s handling of the Bermudiana Beach Resort, a project which he said the OBA would re-examine if elected.

Mr Cannonier said: “I believe that it is a shame that we built 78 units at the Bermudiana Beach Resort for low-cost housing and they never were given to Bermudians.”

He accused the Government of failing to assist Bermudians to access loans to own units at the facility when it was previously announced as a housing project.

Last November, Colonel Burch announced that the Government had decided to jettison the long-running project after a feasibility study concluded that a hotel model was no longer financially viable.

Instead, the minister said that the 94 units will be put on the rental market once construction was completed.

Asked if the OBA will continue with plans to rent the facility for housing, Mr Cannonier said a large volume of work was done at the site.

He said millions of dollars have been expended on the project and the OBA would have to assess the works on the ground.

Mr Cannonier added: “Let’s see how it’s working and there will probably be some readjusting if I have anything to do with it.”

He will stand against the Progressive Labour Party’s Andre Famous as well as independent candidates Mstira Weeks and Marilyn Steede in the battle for Devonshire South Central.

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