Erica James-King, Senior Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
CONSTRUCTION OF the problem plagued Northern Coastal Highway Phase one, which has been completed five years after ground was broken for it, has chalked up a heavy price tag of $3.6 billion (US$72.7 million).
This means the value of the 75 kilometre project has more than doubled the original U.S. dollar estimate and tripled the Jamaican dollar estimate, which originally stood at approximately $1.2 billion (US$24.998 million).
Making the disclosure of the construction cost during yesterday's official opening of the thoroughfare, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson played down the whopping cost overruns, contending that "we (the Govern-ment) regard every penny as well spent."
Outlining a breakdown of the construction exercise, Prime Minister Patterson said, "The direct construction cost of this project amounted to US$71.4 million ($3.5 billion). To this we had to add certain costs...We don't just go in and bulldoze people, we relocate people, and to relocate people we had to acquire some land, and we had to resettle some of those in the vicinity. And that was at a cost of US$1.3 million $65 million.
Knocking the media for criticising the project, Mr. Patterson reiterated that there was no "mismanagement" and "incompetence" on the part of government, with regard to the construction of the highway.
"Let me say that in this project, there has been no incompetence on the part of the political directorate and there is no semblance of corruption of any shape or form," declared the Prime Minister.
He attributed much of the delays and the leap in the cost of the project, to the financial problems that faced the first contractors of the highway, Bosung Engineering. Noting that because of the financial problems in Korea, which had a ripple effect on the South Korean firm-Bosung Engineering, government had to devise other plans to address the completion of the highway.
"We had no alternative but to allow for a temporary shut down of the project and go back to the drawing boards. We had to keep Bosung in place as the main contractors, but we had to farm it out into three different bids, to three local contractors and say you complete the work under Bosung management."
Mr. Patterson was addressing the official opening ceremony of the highway, which took place yesterday afternoon at Point in Hanover, the very site at which ground was broken for the highway on May 17, 1997.
Hundreds of flag waving People's National Party supporters, sporting party T-shirts converged on the highway, and chanted party slogans as Prime Minister PJ Patterson unveiled plaques declaring the various segments of Phase 1 of the Highway open. They also converged on the sight of the opening ceremony at Point where the proceedings took on a carnival like atmosphere at times. There was dancing and shouts at regular intervals during Mr. Patterson's address and during the messages from other members of the PNP top hierarchy.
