Spring Village Bridge Reopens In Old Harbour After $250m Rebuild

Residents of Spring Village in Old Harbour have regained a key route through their community, four years after they began dealing with the disruption and extra costs caused by the loss of the old crossing.

The new Spring Village Bridge, built at a cost of $250 million, was formally turned over on Friday by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness. It takes the place of the previous bridge, which the National Works Agency shut down in September 2022 because of concerns about the soundness of the structure.

The replacement bridge is expected to make travel easier, support business activity, and strengthen public safety for people who live and work in the area.

Speaking at the handover, Holness said Jamaica needs to revisit the way public investment projects are assessed, especially when the works are relatively small. He said the appraisal system remains important, but argued that it should be more practical and should take the size of a project into account.

The prime minister questioned whether a $250-million bridge should be treated in the same way as infrastructure programmes valued at $60 billion or $100 billion. If a project is not significant in that wider spending context, he said, it should not have to pass through every stage of the standard process.

Holness said he was trying to explain why public works can take time to move from decision to delivery. Once the Government has settled on carrying out a project, he argued, the decision should not then be slowed unnecessarily by administrative steps. He said not every project needs the full approval route used for larger undertakings.

He also pointed to broader difficulties affecting the pace of infrastructure work across Jamaica. Among them, he said, are too few contractors with the capacity to handle major bridge projects, along with shortages of both skilled and unskilled workers.

Holness described labour supply as a serious limit on economic expansion. He said productivity is lost when young people choose not to work because they believe the available pay is not enough.

To help ease the problem, the prime minister said the Government's HOPE programme has assisted in bringing about 20,000 people into the workforce. He estimated, however, that roughly 50,000 unemployed Jamaicans could still take up available jobs.

Holness said training is part of the challenge, but suggested that attitudes to work are an even bigger issue. He said the administration is in discussions with the HEART/NSTA Trust on ways to increase labour force participation, while noting that Jamaica may at some point have to look overseas for additional workers to fill local shortages.

Robert Morgan, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development, said the completed bridge will bring direct benefits to Spring Village.

Morgan said residents should see improvements in their day-to-day movement, stronger commercial activity, better public safety, and renewed confidence in the community.

He also pushed back against suggestions that the Government has not given enough support to Jamaican contractors. Morgan said the available figures do not support that view.

According to him, US$1.2 billion has been spent on local infrastructure works, with Jamaican contractors receiving about US$700 million of that amount.

The closure of the Spring Village Bridge in 2022 created severe economic pressure for residents. Many people had to spend more on transportation to get in and out of the community while the crossing was out of service.

The bridge project was delivered through a partnership involving the Government and Jamaica Broilers Group, which contributed $50 million toward construction.

Residents welcomed the reopening, saying the new structure restores an important transportation link and ends years of inconvenience and added expense.