The East End Asphalt company has denied claims it bypassed the services of local truckers for the Airport resurfacing project in favour of a sub contractor to transport aggregate.

LF Wade International Airport is currently undergoing a multimillion-dollar resurfacing of its taxiways and aprons. The work began earlier this year and is expected to last until July.

A group of truckers staged a protest on Thursday on Kindley Field Road, St. George's, complaining East End Asphalt bypassed their services, to transport aggregate from Tiger Bay, because they had asked for more than the usual $50 per load rate.

The loss of work, truckers have claimed, was taking away from their livelihoods.

When The Royal Gazette turned up at the protest site, some members from the newly-formed New Bermuda General Truckers Association claimed the work was instead given to contractor D&J.

Furthermore, some of the truckers gathered claimed D&J was using larger dumpster-sized trucks that normally aren't allowed on the road for transporting aggregate — which East End Asphalt strongly denies.

East End Asphalt is the supplier of aggregate material to the foreign company, Lagan Caribbean Limited, contracted by the Department of Airport Operations (DAO) to carry out the Airport resurfacing.

Clarifying the matter yesterday, Nick Faries, Chief of Operations, stressed his company has always supported local truckers and will continue to do so.

He stated: "Our entire role was supplying the aggregate material and nothing else. The company doing the job at the Airport is a foreign company hired by the DAO — we have no association with them whatsoever.

"We're not using those trucks at the Airport (larger dumpster trucks) — that's got nothing to do with us and we are not using the dumpster trucks to transport aggregate from Penno's Wharf to the Airport and never have and never intended to."

Asked to respond to claims by some of the local truckers that they were not hired because they wanted to raise their rate higher than the normal $50 per hour, Mr. Faries added the company went by procedure.

"We've always hired the independent truckers and we had every intention of hiring the independent truckers on this job. We talked to (a group of independent truckers) the night before."

He said half-hour before the truckers were to start work last week, the company was contacted by the truckers' association, which requested an increased rate, but the company had never heard of them.

Additionally, he revealed that D&J's role in the work was negotiated months ago.

"Our response (to the rate increase request) was that we could not negotiate at that time, the contract was sealed and we would be happy to talk to the association after the (gravel) ship had unloaded.

"We mended the offer to hire any independent trucker just as we normally did and several independent truckers appeared and trucked material for us at the usual price.

"When we were contacted at the last minute about a rate increase, we had no idea what the association was. We said 'we don't know who you are and what you represent.'"

Furthermore, Mr. Faries said he has spoken to several independent truckers who say they never gave any authority for the New Bermuda General Truckers Association to speak for them.

Meanwhile, Richard Foggo, president of the truckers' association, contacted The Royal Gazette yesterday saying no one from his group ever staged a protest.

"What were we doing? We were there to have a meeting," he contended. And, contradicting some of his own members who were at the Airport, he added: "East End Asphalt never denied us work, they never have.

"D&J never used large dumpster trucks on that job and the New Bermuda General Truckers Association appreciates them respecting the laws of the land.

"We are in friendly negotiations with East End Asphalt Company, we are here to conduct peaceful, reasonable and rational business and are quite confident that the parties concerned will achieve their objective."

And, Airport General Manager Aaron Adderley also weighed in concerning the Airport project. In response to some concerns previously raised by members of the general trucking industry, he stated that overseas trucks imported to help fulfil the project requirements, are not being used for general hauling outside of Airport grounds.

He clarified previously in this paper: "The large Tipper Trucks brought in by Lagan Caribbean Limited as part of equipment resources needed for them to complete the project, are not being used on Bermuda's public roads to transport aggregate from cargo ships docked at Penno's Wharf to the temporary asphalt plant site located at the Airport.

"Per the conditions of the contract award which explicitly calls for the utilisation of a Bermudian company, Lagan has partnered with local contractor, East End Asphalt Limited, to complete the Pavement project.

"East End has in turn, solely contracted local general truckers to haul materials from Penno's Wharf.

"The large Tipper Trucks, which have a net vehicle weight of 12.5 tonnes, are being used on occasion as per the original scope of work, to transport a stockpile of large granite boulders from the Airport Waste Management Facility to the asphalt plant site located within the perimeter fence line of the airfield.

"When this operation occurs, having already secured the necessary approval from the Transport Control Department, all trucks are escorted by Department of Airport Operations marked vehicles through the airside security gate located at the south western-most corner of the airfield, known as Queen's Gate, along the main airport access road, to the Waste Management Facility, covering a total distance of approximately 1,000 feet in each direction.

"The licensed heavy vehicles operated by local truckers, do not have the sufficient capacity nor do they configure with the equipment at the temporary asphalt plant facility, to be utilised for this purpose."