THERE ARE concerns locally about what appears to be a careful doling out of information on the Highway 2000 project. The Jamaican Institute of Architects (JIA) has called for the suspension of the road plans until there is full disclosure of all information surrounding Highway 2000 and Jamaicans have had the opportunity to examine and comment fully on the US$850-million 230-kilometre road.
A contractor is to be selected within weeks and phase one of the construction from Kingston to Williamsfield is scheduled for implementation by year-end.
Describing the few consultations held to-date as nothing less than a "public relations" gloss over of the project, JIA president Clifton Yap, said the highway planners should come clean on all the facts so that all of Jamaica could "buy into" the "vision".
His concerns about transparency are shared by the fraternity of engineers who said Thursday that despite efforts, they have not been privy to the full highways plans and still have concerns regarding the feasibility of the venture.
"We don't know what impact it will have on the economy and our debt. We want information that this is indeed a project the country can afford," said Harold Nembhard, president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers.
LESS THAN DIRECT
"We have tried to engage Mr. Thomas but the response has always been less than direct," he told Builders Forum.
The Gleaner too, since last year, has made several attempts to get hold of the project plans without success, though assurances were given. Reminders, the last on Thursday, have not been acknowledged.
The highway project is being managed by the National Development Bank of Jamaica, led by Kingsley Thomas, the bank's head, who has boasted of the detailed planning that has gone into the project but has not opened up the documents fully to public scrutiny. The consultations to-date have been mostly closed door.
Highway 2000 is the most ambitious road project proposed by the Government to-date, and is expected to connect the island's main urban centres through a series of high speed toll roads.
ENABLING INFRASTRUCTURE
Thomas has said that the aim is to provide enabling infrastructure whereby persons can live in Montego Bay and work in Kingston, commuting daily via the new highway at 90 minutes each way.
Either the Spanish Dragados Group or Bouygues Challenger of France, the two remaining contenders for the contract, will get to own the road for 35 years, under a Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) financing arrangement.
The architects mentioned as one among five broad areas of concern the lack of transparency surrounding, at minimum, the US$4 million expenditure getting the project to tender stage.
"While we support appropriate development and understand the frustrations of dealing with the bureaucracies, we do not think that individuals and agencies in Government should continue to make unilateral decisions on matters that so profoundly impact on the natural and built environment, the economy and society," said the JIA president in a May 9 letter to the press.
The engineers were given a technical presentation on the project two weeks ago, but were no less concerned.
"I see an increasing trend to marginalise our people and I don't know how it's going to be managed and who will stop it," Nembhard said, pointing as well to the prison contract award that was quietly decided on recently.
Yap told Builders Forum that his association had met last year with Thomas and his team, and had voiced the same concerns they are raising now.
The architects too, question the economic feasibility of the plan, and remain convinced that despite the financing strategy outlined, taxpayers will end up bailing out the highway at some point in the future.
