Urban, miscellaneous roads receive $1.7B upgrade

1.7B in contracts for urban and miscellaneous road development in Regions Two, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Nine and Ten were awarded by the Public Works Ministry recently. It was revealed that these contracts were awarded to 53 contractors at the ministry’s Kingston office of which, 37 of the contractors are to complete miscellaneous road works in Regions Two, Five and Six to the tune of $1,163,692,208.

Meanwhile, 16 contractors will complete urban road works in Regions Two, Four, Six, Seven, Nine and Ten to the tune of $562,297,396. Additionally, the ministry disclosed that they have accepted 17 new contractors who participated in the open bid. Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill, appealed to contractors to maintain existing roads in communities that are being used during the construction period. He also urged contractors to involve the community in which they are assigned work.

“We are in the business of fixing not breaking, and I want to endorse what Minister Indar says, we have to use some of the streets to get access to some of the roads we are fixing so let’s be mindful that when we are passing through communities, we are not damaging shoulders, we are not damaging roads, we are taking our time,” Minister Edghill warmed. He continued, “Wherever we are executing contracts, before the work begins a meeting must be held with the community, whether the ministers are present or the permanent secretary or just the engineers with the local authority. The people must know that this is the contractor that is executing this work and the unpriced bill of quantities must be given to the community, so they must be able to monitor the work.”

Meanwhile, Junior Public Works Minister, Deodat Indar, disclosed that the government since taking office in August 2020, has rehabilitated a number of roads and will continue to do much more in 2022. “This budget for public works this year for this miscellaneous, urban roads programme is $15.2 billion, it is the biggest we’ve ever had. A number of roads will be constructed… Over the past two years since we have been in government, we have done a lot of roads. This year it is going to be even more between ourselves in public work, local government ministry, as well as housing ministry,” Deodat explained.

The minister added that the road works will be done in asphaltic concrete, reinforced concrete and rigid pavement based on the geographic location.