Erica James-King, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE PARISH Council Infrastructure Development Programme (PIDP) for roads in western Jamaica is running way behind its December 2003 completion deadline, and those involved with the programme are blaming Government's cash crunch and problems in sourcing raw material for the protracted delay.
Under the $37 million PIDP contract signed in July last year between the Local Government Ministry and contractors to rehabilitate some parochial roads in St. James, the work was to run from August 18 to December 17.
But almost three months after the contract should have ended, the work is incomplete.
Loop Road and Davis Avenue are the only roads of the nine slated for rehabilitation, which have been completed. The work was to entail resurfacing and construction of proper drainage for those thoroughfares.
Heroy Clarke, Councillor for the St. James South East Division is among a slew of persons expressing concerns over the series of delays in the full implementation of the programme.
Mr. Clarke explained that work on the Farm Heights road in his division started sometime late last year, but he lamented that the roadwork was still incomplete and repairs had been halted for over two months.
"They (the contractor) marled and oiled the road, but the work was not finished. I have noticed that there has been no work on that road since before Christmas," Councillor Clarke told The Gleaner.
FUNDING PROBLEMS
"I have heard reports circulating that the contractor has been having funding problems. However, all we are hearing from the works department of the Parish Council is that it will soon be completed and no one is explaining why it has been halted."
Councillor for the Rose Hall Division, Harold Henry, echoed similar sentiments.
Upgrading of the Spot Valley Road in the Rose Hall division began only two weeks ago.
"We understand that the work was very late in getting off the ground because the contractors were having problems pulling down the needed funding from government," said Mr. Henry.
He said, however, that work on that roadway is now moving at an accelerated pace.
"I am now satisfied that work is progressing at a fast pace on the Spot Valley Road, and the curbs and channels for the drainage have been finished."
Work on another road listed in the contract, Johnson Hill, remained in limbo.
Meanwhile, pressed for comments by The Gleaner, one of the two contractors on the project, Senior Woodwork and Construction Ltd. (SWC) explained that work did not start in August as stipulated by the contract.
"The work began in about September because from the onset, there were some money problems in starting up the programme. Payment problems with the Ministry held it up," said Stan Senior, site manager for SWC in St. James.
RE-COSTING AND REDESIGN
He said there were variations in the contract and that also forced some re-costing and redesign of the road programme. "The contract had made reference to double-surface dressing but.... we switched to micro-surfacing application since that was more durable, even though it was more expensive and harder to acquire," he said in an interview with The Gleaner.
Mr. Senior said there were other issues in the contract which posed problems. For instance, the drains needed in the Peddlars Lane rehabilitation were not stated in the contract and putting in those drains increased time taken on that roadway, as well as the costing.
DEADLINE
According to SWC, the deadline for the completion of the work was moved to February and further discussions with the Ministry this week should see a further extension of the deadline.
For its part, the St. James Parish Council has stopped short of admitting to a cash flow problem affecting the PIDP road programme. Christopher Powell, Secre-tary/Manager of the St. James Parish Council however explained that the contractors had some problems in procuring the material for the roadwork. "There was a change in the material for doing the roadwork. The change to the new material for doing the micro-surfacing, caused some delay," outlined Mr. Powell yesterday.
