The Island?s construction boom is likely to keep rolling along for up to five years, according to an industry veteran.

Project manager and civil engineer Martin Bolton said he does not anticipate the Island?s heavy construction activity abating any time soon.

Questions were raised last week on whether building activity might be in decline after Government?s Retail Sales Index revealed a slump in the value of building supplies being sold in October. For the month, year-on-year growth fell to 1.7 percent compared to double digit growth for most of the past year.

Speaking with The Royal Gazette as he prepares to launch a new project management company ? Project Services Ltd. ? Mr. Bolton shot down the notion that the sector could be headed for a downtime, saying there was ?plenty of construction going on as we speak? and more projects in the pipeline.

The state of the industry is something Mr. Bolton is well-equipped to speak to having had a bird?s eye view of construction activity as a director and co-founder of Bermuda Project Managers ? a firm he is quitting to begin his new venture.

?I have a pretty good idea of who?s who and what?s what,? he said, of his connections within the industry.

But Mr. Bolton said he did see construction projects in Hamilton ? with much of the Island?s building activity taking place in the city centre ? shifting to the east. That would be a change in the recent trend which has seen a run of development on the western side of the city in recent years.

To underscore the continued building frenzy, Mr. Bolton quickly rattled off a number of projects underway as well as others that should see ground broken soon, including three projects on Par-la-Ville Road, continued construction at the Waterfront, plans for another apartment building on Dundonald Street and Cedar Avenue, a new building being developed on the corner of Burnaby Street and Church Street and St. Andrew?s Church building an office block on Church Street, to name some of the projects underway in Hamilton alone.

In the future, Mr. Bolton said he saw the redevelopment of the Hamilton docks and the eastern end of Front Street as a real possibility.

?I see construction booming for the next four to five years, and that is aside from Government projects,? he said, adding that development of a new court and police building were also in the works.

?The docks are an issue. I think (re-development of this area) has to happen. If we are to revitalise Hamilton, we have to have space to the east. We have spread to the west about as much as we can without crashing into Rosemont and the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.?

Project Services Ltd. in the new year and said he was winding down his time with Bermuda Project Managers Ltd.

Mr. Bolton, who has been working on the Island for the past 25 years and is married to a Bermudian, said demand for project management on construction project is so high that he has already lined up work for his new firm, even though the doors don?t officially open until the new year.

Although a founder of BPML ? the only company offering this kind of service on the Island until now ? Mr. Bolton said he definitely sees room for two project management firms.

In his new venture, Mr. Bolton will be in direct competition with his former colleagues. Although conceding he may not be able to take on the same volume of work ? being a one-man operation compared to BPML?s stable of five project managers ? Mr. Bolton did not rule out expanding the operation to include more staff as the business grows.

He explained his departure from BPML as ?amicable? even though the two firms will be rivals, and something he had decided on after ?coming to a point where I wanted more flexibility?.

As Project Services Ltd., Mr. Bolton said he will continue consulting on all aspects of construction development process on both commercial and residential projects. But he said that he may take his involvement on construction and development projects further than BPML has done.

He underscored that although he is a registered engineer in Bermuda, as a project manager what he does is advise clients not do the actual design work. ?I should clarify that I don?t do the design or building, I work with local designers, architects...?

Mr. Bolton, who is originally from the UK, founded Bermuda Project Managers with Adam Hawley and Ian Feathers in 1997 ? who are remaining on with BPML ? as the first company focused on project management of construction projects.