An old seaside restaurant in Coral Bay is now the operations center for a federal overhaul of Route 107.
The shingle for Sea Breeze Restaurant was taken down for several months. The green two-story converted house has a new coat of paint. Inside are offices and living quarters still getting their final touch-ups. Outside are two portable traffic lights and a bulletin board posting federal labor regulations and hourly wages for the road crews.
Bill Manos of VI Cement and Building Products flies in on the weekends from St. Croix to make sure his project office is ready to accommodate the personnel who will soon arrive.
Under usual procedures, "by now, we would have put up a couple of trailers," Manos said. But the former restaurant met the space requirements and is located right on Route 107, so he leased the space for his project headquarters instead.
The three-phase project is expected to take five months, he said. The leased space is housing the office and temporary dormitory for the St. Croix contractor and his workers. A government-owned parcel near the juncture of Route 107 and Centerline Road has been cleared and secured for storing materials.
Orange road signs have sprung up over the last four weeks, cautioning drivers about construction crews at the southern end of the route.
The portable traffic lights were first used on St. John during a construction project at Mongoose Junction, Manos said. They've been brought back to regulate traffic flow during times when one lane has to be closed.
Manos said he had expected to open the project to local hires from the first phase, but one of the subcontractors who was in the best position to use island labor dropped out. Once the first phase of work is complete, he said, local workers may be sought.
With the set-up phase nearly complete, Manos was expecting a barged delivery of gravel and sand early this week.
According to the contractor, hurricane season isn't a concern as he undertakes the road work now. He said his company does road construction work throughout the Caribbean and his crews are out working 365 days a year with seasonal weather conditions in mind.