Traffic leaving barges at Enighed Pond’s Theovald E. Moorehead Marine Facility on St. John will exit the area through the entrance instead of the usual exit onto Pond Mouth Road starting Monday.
The change will be in place for about three weeks while a contractor installs a new concrete catch basin and associated reinforced concrete pipes for the extension of the storm drain, according to a V.I. Port Authority press release.
Port Authority Board Chairman Robert O’Connor Jr. said the work should help the flooding that occurs near the marine terminal.
Vehicles disembarking from the barge will be directed eastward through the facility’s entrance gate. Vehicles waiting to board the barge will have to form a queue in the newly completed container holding area until all vehicles have exited the facility.
The authority began construction of a new office building at the Moorehead Marine Facility in June 2011. Port Authority Director Kenn Hobson said a 1,500-square-foot building is being constructed to provide office space, public restrooms and a short-term storage area for cargo containers.
Port Authority spokesman Monifa Marrero said the new office and the catch basin work will cost $2.1 million. It is funded by the remainder of GARVEE Bonds issued to the Port Authority in 2004 for the cargo port at Enighed Pond.
Hobson said the construction on the office building should be completed by March.