SAN JUAN — Construction of the roughly $80 million Vieques hospital in Puerto Rico will begin in January, said the executive director of the central office for recovery, reconstruction and resiliency.
The official, Manuel Laboy Rivera, told newspaper El Vocero that $10.8 million of the $43 million to be provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to build the hospital has been transferred to Vieques municipality to begin the construction.
“The infrastructure financing authority [AFI] and the municipality will carry out construction in stages during 2023. When they’ve used the $10.8 million they can ask for another 25 percent,” said Laboy Rivera.
The rest of the resources will come from private insurance ($2 million), the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR, $6 million), and state coffers ($27 million).
The reconstruction contract was awarded in the second week of December by the AFI to Caribe Tecno, which beat out 22 other bidders.
The first stage was due this year but was delayed because of the complexity of works and bureaucratic procedures to receive FEMA funds, the health ministry said in August.
The hospital will be built on the grounds of the former Susan Centeno diagnostics and treatment center, which was closed in 2017 due to structural damage caused by Hurricane Maria and demolished in May this year.
[wpedon id=23995]SOURCE: BNamericas
