Canaries and Laborie Jetties

The mountainous terrain of the west coast of Saint Lucia, on the Caribbean Sea, consists of numerous fishing villages that double as untapped tourism destinations. As part of the initiative to boost the economies of these communities, both in tourism and fishing, the government of Saint Lucia commissioned the design and construction of jetties at the villages of Canaries and Laborie. The construction of the jetties aimed to facilitate the landing by fishermen with their catch and sought to encourage tourism activities by accommodating the docking of tourist vessels. It also sought to encourage and promote general travel and communication by sea from one village to the other and to the touristic town of Soufriere, particularly as the mountainous terrain make travelling over land uncomfortable for some commuters.

The Canaries jetty (west coast of St Lucia) measures a length of 64m x 4m wide. The Laborie jetty (southwest coast of St Lucia) measures a length of 112m long and width of 4m. The construction of the two jetties consist of 300mm thick reinforced concrete decks on reinforced concrete pile caps of 2No. 406mm diameter steel pile at 4m spacing. The fendering and access platforms for the jetties were constructed of Greenheart timber.

Dannion revised the original insitu designs in favour of a precast design and construction option, which allowed for an ease of construction, and the reduced likelihood of delays by increasing the construction and installation efficiency in the sometimes-choppy waters of the Caribbean Sea. Dannion represented the Client’s interest by also undertaking the contract management, supervision of the works, certification of payment to the contractor, and revision of the detailed designs where necessary to suit onsite conditions during the construction phase.