Protective Barrier Being Built for Philip Goldson Bust

The Philip Goldson bust that has been repaired will be mounted shortly at its permanent location near the entrance to the highway named after him. This week, work to build a protective barrier is being carried out at the site to prevent the sculpture from being damaged by vehicular traffic. This follows an incident on September ninth of last year when a drunken taxi driver lost control of his vehicle and careened into the bust, knocking it to the ground and damaging it. Chief Engineer at the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Evondale Moody explained the scope of work being put into the protective barrier.

Evondale Moody

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH

“Today the contractor mobilized to site, and he’s trying to formulate the.  stand for the pedestal and so the idea is that we want to construct a new pedestal so that we could place the bust on top and we expect to get those works completed within about 4 to 5 days and thereafter, we will install back on top of the pedestal that we’re presently constructing at the same time, as I mentioned before, we will try, we’ll be building some what you call bollards as a additional protection in front of the pedestal that we’re , um, That we’re building in an effort to secure it even more in the event that we have another unfortunate accident at that location. We will be building a concrete pedestal that will be secured with a new footing to ensure that it is secure, does not tilt over in the event that we have another accident there. Yes, it will entail additional reinforcement in an effort to make sure that it is sturdy and constructed well. And it’s basically just a cylindrical pedestal that we will be building.  It’s not going to be too high, similar to the height that we had before. So that we could ensure that the bus is uniformly placed in terms of its size and complexity with respect to the new pedestal.”

Marion Ali

“So I’m thinking if there’s a cargo truck or a big bus, you know, [the] driver losing control in that area, smashes into the foundation, any damage could be caused to the bus again?

Evondale Moody

“Well, depending upon the speed of those vehicles, so I don’t expect that we should have excessive speeds going around roundabout because it should be a slow moving roundabout exiting onto the Philip Wilson Highway, but we do anticipate that with the foundation that we’re presently putting in, um, it should be sturdy enough to withstand an additional accident, but honestly, we don’t really want anybody to  intentionally crash into the structure because that will definitely damage your vehicle and also the structure itself. So, I think the level of protection that we’re putting in is just so that in the event it just gets a little hit that it doesn’t tilt to basically that it’s not to damage a vehicle and keep that pedestal standing because that would be detrimental to the driver.”