YASCO Completion Date Uncertain

An unscheduled stoppage of civil works at the YASCO Sports Complex has left those charged with the upgrading of the track and field facility uncertain of a completion date. This was confirmed by Minister of Sports, EP Chet Greene, who said an unscheduled stoppage of civil works in December may push the upgrades beyond the original completion date in March. “The Public Works Department will assign a new engineer to the project. There is a clear understanding that we need to catch up for the time lost with respect to the ultimate delivery date of March 27th or 28th, and so I am expecting to see, at YASCO on Public Works behalf, a serious push to bring the work back up to speed,” Greene said. “We know already that we are behind with respect to the work schedule because, during the Christmas break or a little before that, we had the hold-up of work at YASCO,” he added.
Representatives of Mondo Track, the company charged with providing an internationally certified surface for the track at YASCO, will visit Antigua in February, at which time, Greene said a decision on a completion date could be finalised. “We did take note of the delays we’ve had and the need to push the work or advance the work to a point where we can catch up to allow for the track to be delivered still at the date agreed with Mondo.
Mondo’s representatives are due here in February and so we are hoping that by the time they get here we will have a better appreciation or overall picture of where we are or eitherreconfirmation ofthe date for the track or a rescheduling of such a date,” he said. In December, President of the Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association (ABAA), Everton Cornelius who is now the former engineer on the project, said no real work will start at the facility until there is confirmation that the required funds are available.
Work started at the facility late November with the levelling of the playing field but have since stopped with no word as to when work will resume. Schools have since been advised by the sports ministry to seek alternate venues at which to host their individual sports days owing to the unavailability of YASCO.