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STORM: New Coaling Island marina 'damaged due to a construction fault,' say experts
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? 'Marina's poor protection from the weather'
The Opposition says it understands that the marina which the Government provided for small boat users at Coaling Island has suffered considerable storm damage which has been traced by experts to a fault in the construction. This comes as a considerable surprise given that the Government are on record recently as having praised the nature of the facilities which they provided there.
In a recent statement in answer to Opposition comments regarding the on-going problem with the lack of berths in Gibraltar, the Government have said that they provided the local boating community ?with an excellent, new and safe marina at Coaling Island within the harbour at a cost of over one million pounds.? They added that this ?marina has first class facilities and affords the small boats excellent protection from the elements.?
However, despite this assertion, the reality is that there was considerable damage caused to the marina during the storms of last year.
Shadow Minister with responsibility for the Port Dr Joseph Garcia probed these issues during the last question-time in Parliament. The Government initially washed its hands of the matter by saying that the marina was independently run by the boat owners club and that the Opposition should ask the club directly but when pressed further pointed, with some sarcasm, to the severity of the weather conditions.
The Opposition says it now understands that a report from a surveyor into the damage has concluded that the piles which hold the pontoons could not have been driven to the required depth of four metres when the marina was originally constructed. This led to damage to the fingers, pontoons and gangways during the storm which caused the piles which hold the pontoons in place to move. The cost of repairing the damage is believed to run into tens of thousands of pounds.
Shadow Minister with responsibility for the Port Dr Joseph Garcia said: ?Given that the marina was built by the Government with taxpayer?s money, there is a clear public interest in this issue. If the Government is going to boast about how much money the project has cost they should at least have ensured that it was money properly spent in terms of its structural requirements. Moreover, it is important to establish how this problem with the piles has come about and who was responsible for taking the decision that they did not need to be driven to a depth of four metres.
"The indications are that this construction deficiency rendered the marina unsafe and afforded the boats poor protection from the elements, which is actually the opposite of what the Government have said in their recent statement. Indeed, the Opposition understands that it was the owners themselves who braved the weather conditions through the night in order to ensure the safety of the boats and the facilities.?
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