Designs for the new National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) are now complete and are with the Building Authority for the final step of approvals.

The design team of Virella, Crespo and Associates made the final submission to the Ministry of Finance, Project Support Services Unit last week. The designs have already been approved by the Planning Authority as well as other key government departments including the Water and Sewage Department, BVI Electricity Corporation, Department of Information Technology and the Department of Disaster Management.

Director of Projects in the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Drexel Glasgow said that he is pleased with the deliverables and commended the design consultants for their efforts.

Dr. Glasgow said, “We are impressed with the level of detail and technical input that has been included in the designs. Dr. Juan Virella leads a highly professional and experienced team of designers who have met all of the requirements of the project thus far.”

The new NEOC building is expected to be constructed in MacNamara and has been designed to meet regional and international building standards. The designs also take into consideration the SMART standards that support safe, healthy and green requirements.

The Director of Projects further said, “We are well on our way towards the commencement of the tender process for this very important facility. We are confident that we will be able to issue a full tender document in the coming months to advance the project to the construction phase. Virella, Crespo and Associates will oversee this phase so as to ensure that there is transfer of knowledge to the selected contractor and so that the designs can be accurately applied during the building phase. We encourage interested contractors to monitor the progress of this project and to get themselves ready to make their submissions.”

The construction phase of this project is expected to begin no later than April of 2019.

This project is being funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) through the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Loan secured by the BVI Government following the impacts that occurred in 2017.