Basil Read to Construct a New Airport on St Helena Island

 The historic island of St Helena, a former British Crown Colony but since 1981 a British Overseas Territory, is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean. It measures 16 by 8 km, 122 sq km with a population of approximately 6 000 people.

Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, it was chartered to the British East India Company by Oliver Cromwell in 1658 and functioned as an important stopover for its fleets sailing and returning to and from its trading stations in the East. After the demise of the British East India Company, the island became a British Crown Colony from 1821 to 1981. Because of its remoteness and inaccessibility, it was convenient for the British to incarcerate those who were troublesome on the island which achieved great fame when Napoleon was banished there after the French were defeated at the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon died on the island during 1822.

Links with South  Africa were established when King Dinizulu ka Cetshawayo was banished to St Helena during the 1880`s and some 5 000 ZAR Burgers captured in the South African Anglo-Boer War from 1899 to 1902 were held captive on the island. After the opening of the Suez Canal, the island became more isolated and in recent years could only be reached by means of the Royal Mail Ship St Helena sailing from the UK and Cape Town at recent intervals. Many young St Helenians, known as the "saints’ left the island to seek their fortunes elsewhere. There are descendants of the "saints" in our provincial capital Pietermaritzburg, where many of them are still prominent in the building industry.

After much debate for a number of years, the British Government realised that the island, which has a temperate climate and many scenic and historic attractions, has considerable tourism potential to boost the island economy. Basil Read, the JSE listed engineering and construction company announced recently that it had been awarded the contract to construct an airport on St Helena to be paid for by the UK Department for International Development.

The value of the contract is R2.7-billion, boosting the company`s order book to R12.5- billion. The contract which involves design, build and transfer of the airport is already in the planning phase. The airport is to be constructed on the Prosperous Bay plain situated on the eastern part of the island with a 2 250 meter long runway capable of taking Airbus A320, Boeing 737 and Boeing 757-200 aircraft. Construction is anticipated to take 48 months. It is certainly a feather in the cap of the South African construction sector for one of its leading companies to win such a prestigious contract against international competition.

Pieter Rautenbach