By Erica James-King, Staff Reporter 
Some of the housing units under construction at Providence Heights, St. James. - Patrick Campbell/Staff Photographer
WESTERN BUREAU:
CONSTRUCTION WORK on scores of houses being built at Providence Heights, St. James, under Government's Relocation 2000 programme, has been halted since Thursday.
The contractor, Ashtrom Building Systems Ltd., said it took the decision to shut down operations on the site after a conflict developed between some employees.
"We took the decision on Thursday, to halt work on certain aspects of the project until Monday," said Desmond Young, Ashtrom's project manager. This followed a fight between two workers. Accor-ding to Young, the decision to shutdown certain operations was in order to prevent further conflicts on the site, and to allow the two workers who were fighting to "cool off."
He gave the assurance that the temporary stoppage would not delay the end of September completion date for the $165.3 million project.
The only work being carried out at the site yesterday was drainage and other infrastructural work, the responsibility of the Jamaica Defence Force and the National Housing Trust (NHT).
A raft of problems have caused delays to the project at the Providence Heights location.
One such delay resulted when lands were identified at the NHT's Cornwall Court housing scheme, but residents of the scheme rejected the plan to relocate persons from the inner-city community of Railway Gardens to their area.
Other delays were blamed on lengthy negotiations between Government and land mogul Joe Witter to obtain the Providence Heights site. Technical glitches, problems in developing the rocky terrain as a housing site and the heavy rains of 2001/2002 were also blamed.
O.D. Ramtalie, project co-ordinator for Relocation 2000 expressed confidence that the Providence Heights venture would meet the September deadline.
"Everything is progressing well and we hope to start handing out the units by the end of September," Mr. Ramtallie told The Gleaner.
