Government is seeking private partners to help fund a major redevelopment of the Causeway and airport.

Finance Minister Bob Richards unveiled the news during his Budget statement yesterday.

Describing the plan as “the most strategically important, and probably largest” potential infrastructure development project, Mr Richards said: “Parts of that terminal date back to the 1940s.

“Such a development would include a new causeway that is hurricane resistant and a new terminal building that is not susceptible to flooding in the event of a hurricane.

“We cannot allow another Fabian-like storm to cut us off from the rest of the world.”

Hurricane Fabian shut down the Island when it struck in September, 2003, shutting down the causeway and causing millions of dollars of damage to the airport.

Mr Richards said that there were other infrastructure development projects that could create jobs but funding presented a potential stumbling block.

“Government’s financial capability is tapped out by the burden of debt so the old way of developing such projects using government debt is unavailable,” he said.

“The alternative approach is to structure such projects so that private capital can be used.

“Therefore, the stimulus package contemplated by this Government lies in this alternative approach whereby institutional and other private sector investors will participate alongside Government in developing or redeveloping parts of our infrastructure.

“A P3 [public-private partnership] for this project is high on the list of possible infrastructure development projects.

“An advantage with this project is that international institutional private sector investors are highly experienced in and familiar with the financing of airports in island settings.

“This will be a job creator and revenue generator for Bermuda.”