By John Myers Jr. Staff ReporterA $400-MILLION rehabilitation project initiated by the Ministry of Transport and Works to transform the Jose Marti and Spanish Town/Old Harbour Road roundabouts and the improvement of connecting roads has ceased.
Reports are that the portion of the contract to complete these road projects, which began in September, halted three weeks ago due to the current financial difficulties affecting the Government.
Vando Palmer, manager of communications and customer services at the National Works Agency (NWA), said yesterday that he had seen no work being done on the project, adding that "I spoke with the CEO (Ivan Anderson)... and based on the information that is coming forward, there is very little basis on which the contractor should not be working."
Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, during a tour of the Spanish Town bypass on September 14 to examine the newly-implemented one-way system, announced the scope of work to be executed on the roundabouts.
According to the Minister, when the rehabilitation work is completed, the roundabouts will become four-way intersections, a measure which is expected to greatly improve traffic flow along the corridor. He said the project was being carried out to support the new one-way system in order to improve the flow of traffic in that area. The Minister said at the time that work on the Jose Marti roundabout was to be completed within three months. It is, however, likely now that this timeline will be missed.
The contract is also to provide for improvement works on the bypass itself. The contract was awarded to M & M Jamaica Ltd.
Last Tuesday Minister Pickersgill in responding to questions posed by the opposition Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Joseph Hibbert, told Parliament that several road rehabilitation projects across the island have been suspended due to millions of dollars owed to contractors by the NWA, an executive agency of the Transport and Works Ministry. Mr. Pickersgill disclosed that the NWA owes approximately half-a-billion dollars to about 100 contractors.
In the meantime, local political representatives and business leaders in the Spanish Town area have become impatient with the authorities. Both groups have written to State Minister for Transport and Works, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the matter.
