Minister of Local Government Portia Simpson Miller (second left) watches as Donovan Barker, director of Seematt Construction Limited (seated right), affixes his company's seal to the contract to rehabilitate parochial roads in Portland and St. Thomas, yesterday. The contract was signed at the ministry's Hagley Park Road branch in St. Andrew. Looking on (from left) are: Mayor of Morant Bay Joan Spencer; Patrick Wong, technical director in the Ministry of Local Government and Councillor Deverell Dwyer of the Cedar Valley Division.
-Ricardo Makyn photo
MORE THAN 10 kilometres of roads in the parishes of St. Thomas and Portland are to be rehabilitated at a cost of $67.74 million under the Parish Infrastructure Development Programme (PIDP), funded by the Government of Jamaica and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Portia Simpson Miller, minister of local government, community development and sports, signed contracts for the work yesterday at the ministry's Hagley Park Road office in St. Andrew.
TREMENDOUS BENEFITS
Seven roads totalling 5.88 kilometres will be rehabilitated in St. Thomas while in Portland five roads totalling 4.6 kilometres will be addressed.
Patrick Wong, technical director in the ministry, said that work on the roads would commence in early January with completion set for early May next year.
Minister Simpson Miller also announced that these roads were the last set to be rehabilitated under the programme, which started some four years ago. Commending the programme, Mr. Wong said: "The local authorities have benefited tremendously, not only in terms of the physical works, but they have been responsible also for the day-to-day supervision in terms of the capacity building of the local authorities."
CASH FLOW PROBLEMS
Speaking to the success of the programme, Mr. Wong said 203 kilometres of roads islandwide were rehabilitated, while the St. James Parish Council, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the Man-chester Parish Council buildings and the Brown's Town market were also rehabilitated.
However, Mr. Wong said that they were some problems in managing the cash flow of the programme. This, he said, caused some $70 million in overruns, which were due to landslips.
"From time we had to put in additional retaining walls as necessary; a lot of these roads are in the hilly areas and they are prone to land slips," he said. Mr. Wong added that help would be sought from multilateral agencies to continue the rehabilitation of the island's parochial roads.
Roads for repair
ST THOMAS ROADS
Village Road
Somerset Road
Beacon Hill
Roselle Land
Settlement
Seaforth Housing Scheme
Catholic Lane.
PORTLAND ROADS
Stanton Harcourt
Benjamin Hill
Belle Castle
Rodney Hall
Shantimy
