Construction awards to benefit industry

Nicholas Mouttet, the managing director of Abel Building Solution (ABS) is hoping that the Caribbean Construction Awards (CCA) will raise the profile of the construction industry. He said people have developed a negative view of the construction industry in recent times and this award ceremony is meant to show the positive developments in the sector in T&T and the rest of the Caribbean. “We saw issues with the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) and allegations of buildings that are being built that are not up to proper standards. We want people to see the positive things that are happening in the sector,” he said.

He said there has been good work in the construction industry here in T&T and throughout the Caribbean and this must be recognised. “We see how the skyline of Port-of-Spain has changed. We want to recognise the importance of the work of professionals in this industry. When you look at places like Haiti and Grenada you see what happened after natural disasters and this raises the importance of standards in the industry. These awards show the quality of work done and how they should be done,” he said.
He told the Guardian this in a phone interview yesterday. The Caribbean Construction Awards (CCA) will be held on March 21 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain.

The awards ceremony would recognise regional excellence in the industries of architecture, engineering and construction. The CCA will look at construction projects from throughout the region, judging them on innovation, beauty and functionality of the design as well as the  quality of construction. The purpose is to both recognise the merit of the regional industry and to encourage the pursuit of excellence. The CCA award is an initial construction awards ceremony created and hosted by ABEL/Bestcrete/Penta under the auspices of their parent company ANSA McAl Limited to recognise excellence in architecture and construction.

Projects will be judged based on the architecture, engineering and construction in large building and innovation categories. Participants will have photographic displays of their work exhibited at the CAIC/Caricom Caribbean Construction Forum on March 21 and 22. Mouttet said there had been many calls concerning entries for the awards. Entries should be submitted through the CCA Web site at www.caribbeanconstructionawards.com and the deadline for entries will be March 4.