Cost of construction sand to go up

The construction sector is about to see a significant increase in the cost of sand.

This announcement was made by Minister of Transport and Works Julian Francis on Monday.

Francis told reporters that a few years ago, the Government took certain decisions in relation to sand mining and those decisions were not carried out in full.

Speaking at a Roads, Building and General Services Authority (BRAGSA) press briefing, the Minister said there is renewed discussion on sand mining in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), because we cannot continue to mine the beaches in SVG, particularly those at Brighton and Diamond.

Francis said the importation of sand will bring with it a significant increase in cost, but sand mining cannot continue.

He said that BRAGSA will be at the centre of the producing of what is called construction sand. “A lot of the sand that was used at [the] Argyle [International Airport] for concrete construction was crushed construction sand, washed from Rabacca…we are going to make some final decisions and I will speak on it and it looks like we are going to open back up the importation of sand.

“So, you can expect that the private sector people who are going to do that will make a dollar from it and the cost of sand is going to go up,” said Francis.

He said while this will influence the construction industry, the Government will look closely as to how best to handle this and he will soon hold another discussion on the issue.(LC)