PNP renews pressure on government over SPARK road programme delivery and funding

The parliamentary opposition has again taken issue with how the administration is carrying out the Shared Prosperity Through Accelerated Improvement of Road Networks (SPARK) programme, telling reporters at a Tuesday briefing that broken commitments, patchy coordination and weak public communication are undermining confidence in the road-rehabilitation drive.

People’s National Party (PNP) members stressed that they want the initiative to succeed and said they have been asking residents not to obstruct works. Southern St James Member of Parliament Nikisha Burchell said she and colleagues still have to sit with constituents and say, “Please, don’t block the road because we want the programme to work.” She called on the government to set fair expectations, stay realistic and change course where conditions demand it, warning that without fresh support for SPARK it will be harder to stop people from blocking roads.

Burchell said the scheme has raised hopes of relief that have not been met on the ground. In her division, she said, nine roads are listed under SPARK with a combined estimated price tag of about $2.3 billion, while roughly $315 million—less than fifteen per cent of that sum—has been allocated so far. She asked why authorities would wait until a mother loses a child or a motorist is hurt at a breakaway before acting, and urged immediate repairs to hazardous edges along the network.

She also said people in western Hanover are demanding answers on delays. As officials promote a second phase that is expected to widen to larger thoroughfares, she expressed fear that the same uneven pattern could continue. Opposition speakers at the event described delayed execution, inconsistent application across communities, shifting pledges, poor coordination and mounting public frustration, even though SPARK was launched to tackle Jamaica’s crumbling roads. National planning documents tied to the programme have pointed to work beginning in late 2024, with ambitions to rehabilitate more than six hundred and sixty roads—including about ten small community links in each constituency—on a budget of roughly forty billion Jamaican dollars.

Burchell summed up a widespread feeling among critics that the programme has not yet delivered the spark communities were promised.