THE NATIONAL Works Agency (NWA) has given some of its contractors an ultimatum - either to shape up or have their contracts terminated - as concerns mount over the pace at which they are working to repair roads especially in the Corporate Area.
NWA's Information Manager, Vando Palmer, said the contractors have been put on notice with letters being sent out since mid-October, giving each 14 days to either improve on their work or improve planning, by providing support and material at sites and ensure that work will be completed on time.
"If after 14 days we are still not satisfied that there is improvement, we will make the public know who they are," Mr. Palmer said. "We will terminate their contracts and call in bonds which have been posted."
Work is so "stagnant" in some areas, Mr. Palmer said, that only 18 per cent of the job has been completed even though almost 75-80 per cent of the contract period had elapsed for some contractors.
Though reluctant to name the areas, he said that some areas which the contractors had marked and prepared for patching were left undone for too long and, with the recent rains, the potholes have been made bigger.
Under the Government's $1.2 billion Ur-ban/Rural Township Patching and Rehabilitation programme, a number of contractors have been assigned to carry out work on an ongoing basis.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced in May that the project covers improvement to approximately 90 kilometres of roadway, through various towns, islandwide. At that time, three packages valued at approximately $500 million were approved for Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Elizabeth, St. Mary, St. Ann, Manchester and Clarendon. Work should have begun by the end of June this year.
The project is the first programme of its kind in Jamaica, where the contractor/consultant will design, rehabilitate and maintain the road over a six-year period. Mr. Patterson also said that efforts would be made to rid roads of potholes and that $62 million had been allocated to clean up the potholes in the Corporate Area. The programme is part of the drive to make Jamaica's main roads pothole-free by 2003, the Prime Minister said.
But, added to the contractors' slow pace, the programme has also been dealt a severe blow by back-to-back flooding in the recent Tropical Storms. The NWA is, however, asking contractors to speed up the work.
Mr. Palmer said, via a news release, that the NWA has had to utilise its in-house resources to help with the road-patching programme.
"We have had to pull out five jet patchers and two dura patchers in order to alleviate the pressure in the Kingston and St. Andrew Metropolitan Area," he said.
He also said that contracts for the rehabilitation of Retirement Road in Kingston have been awarded and that work would begin soon. He said that the work of the National Water Commission (NWC) on that road had delayed the project.
However, he told The Gleaner that NWA and NWC are close to resolving the problem, as they are very near to signing an agreement that NWA will reinstate the roads as soon as NWC lays its pipes.
