In the ceremonial opening of Antigua and Barbuda’s Parliament for the 2026 legislative session, Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams delivered a widely anticipated Throne Speech on Tuesday that addressed one of the country’s most pressing construction sector headaches: persistent cement shortages that have slowed public and private building work across the twin-island nation. Sir Rodney confirmed that the ongoing supply crunches, which have hampered the government’s flagship infrastructure expansion and road rehabilitation agenda, are on track to be resolved imminently as dredging work on the navigation channel leading to the national cement silos at Crabbes enters its final phase.
“A shortage of cement has been a challenge; however, as the dredging of the channel leading to the silos at Crabbes nears completion, that scarcity of cement will be of the past,” Sir Rodney told assembled lawmakers and guests. The update comes after months of regional supply chain disruptions and shipping delays that have driven cement shortages across multiple Caribbean nations, grinding construction projects to a halt in several territories. For Antigua and Barbuda, the bottleneck has been compounded by limited access to the Crabbes silos, which prevents large delivery vessels from offloading sufficient cement stock to meet growing demand from large-scale public works.
The Throne Speech dedicated a significant segment to outlining the current state of the country’s multi-year infrastructure overhaul, revealing that work is advancing across dozens of primary and secondary road corridors. Several major arterial routes have already wrapped up rehabilitation work, including the Sir George Walter Highway, Friars Hill Road, and Sir Sidney Walling Highway. Upgrades are also actively progressing on the Valley Road connecting Golden Grove to Old Road, the Parham to Willikies Highway, and the heavily trafficked All Saints Road. In tandem with work on major highways, paving crews have been deployed to resurface secondary local roads across rural villages and urban communities island-wide.
To sustain this ambitious infrastructure push, the government announced a landmark financing agreement: a consortium of local financial institutions has committed EC$150 million in funding for ongoing road rehabilitation, to be repaid through a structured vehicle user-fee mechanism. The arrangement clears the way for continued investment in transportation infrastructure, which the government has identified as a core driver of long-term economic growth and tourism competitiveness.
Sir Rodney also used the speech to recognize the leadership of Works Minister Maria Browne and the entire team at the Ministry of Works for their handling of the expansive infrastructure program amid ongoing supply headwinds. “My Government expresses its sincerest thanks to the Minister of Works, the Honourable Maria Browne, for her management of a workforce that has performed admirably,” he said. Moving forward, officials expect the completion of the Crabbes dredging project to streamline cement delivery and storage operations, eliminating the supply bottleneck that has slowed progress for months.