George Henry, Gleaner Writer
Heavy duty equipment doing excavation work in preparation for the construction of a pumping station at Alston as part of the Clarendon water supply project to serve Spaldings and other communities in the parish. - PHOTO BY GEORGE HENRY
SPALDINGS, Clarendon:
CONSTRUCTION OF the $160 million European Union Develop-ment Fund water supply project to serve Spaldings and other Clarendon communities, as well as sections of Manchester, scheduled to be completed by the end of December next year, is said to be progressing well despite the cement shortage which has curtailed the island's construction sector.
According to Derrick Foster, project manager at the site at the Two-Meeting Bridge at Alston, the work which started in January is on schedule.
"Despite the cement shortage we are on schedule with this project. However, we did plan to do some casting at the Bailleston tank and the low-lift station last week but were unable to, due to the cement shortage, so those two are behind by a week," said Foster.
Mr. Foster said that with the supply of cement now resuming, he is optimistic that the work not done during the past week could be recovered within another two to three weeks, thereby putting things back on track.
STORAGE TANK
Some of the work that has taken place under the contractors M & M Jamaica Limited and supervised by the National Water Commission (NWC), includes preparatory work for the construction of a storage tank and a low-lift pumping facility, as well as work for a diversion structure.
Mr. Foster said that following the completion of work on the three structures, work on a service building at the site will commence, as well as a small structure around the service building.
Although laying water mains is not a part of his supervision, the Spaldings-Christiana Water Supply project manager said over 10,000 of the over 35,000 metres have already been laid in various communities.
The project will include construc-tion of new intake at the confluence of the Cave and Yankee Rivers, a new water treatment plant at the Two-Meetings Bridge and construc-tion of a new high-lift pumping station at the Water Treatment Plant to pump water in two stages to Spaldings. It also includes the setting up of a new pumping main from the Water Treatment Plant to Bailleston, as well as the building of a new storage reservoir at Bailleston.
There will also be the construction of a new pumping main from the Bailleston Reservoir to Spaldings and the rehabilitation of the existing transmission network to serve the areas. Work will also see the rehabilitation of existing reservoirs that are to be incorporated in the new designs as well as the rehabilitation of existing pump stations in the new design.
The new water supply will benefit over 30,000 residents.
