PM Holness Touts SPARK Road Push

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holes is highlighting the need for improved contractor capacity as government ramps up its multi-billion-dollar SPARK Road Rehabilitation Program.

 

He says long-term road quality will depend heavily on stronger oversight and execution standards.

 

The PM said, “I understand the frustration of every single Jamaican about the road conditions. We will improve all the roads.”

 

 

The Prime Minister says Jamaica's road transformation under the SPARK Main Roads Program will depend not only on funding but also on stronger engineering oversight and a more capable local contracting sector.

 

The SPARK Program is designed to overhaul sections of Jamaica's road network through large scale long-term upgrades rather than temporary repairs. Holness was speaking at the unveiling of the Canewood SPARK Road project in Hope Bay, Portland recently.

 

“And as I drove in on your main thoroughfare – your main road here, I reflected on the fact that that road would be now close to 15 years old, and it is one of those roads that we

consider to be very well built. The road that we open today is designed to last a

minimum of seven years without need for rehabilitation.”

 

But every road, he said, regardless of how well built, will need at some point to be rehabilitated. “The better built, the longer the period of time before rehabilitation, and the less will be the need for rehabilitation.”

 

He explains Spark uses an enterprise contractor model to improve planning, supervision and delivery of road networks across the island.

 

“We need good, strong, solid contractors. We need to totally dispense with the view that the contractor is a man with a little bag, and he might have um maybe a truck and a little backhoe there and they can take on massive complex work like the SPARK Program. We need to change that. We need our contractors to move up to a level of enterprise and corporate thinking.”

 

The prime minister says Jamaica's road challenges are significant, noting that fully

rehabilitating the island's road network would cost trillions of dollars and take several years, even under ideal conditions.

 

Holness said, “I explained yesterday that if we were to fix every road in Jamaica, not even to the quality of your main road there, but to this quality, it would take us between 5 and 7 trillion, meaning we would have to take the national budget for 5 years there and do nothing else, but fix roads. Of course, that is impossible. So, I want to give you the assurance, give the Jamaican people the assurance that your government is paying full attention to improving your roads.”