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NWA to engage consultants to help carry out road works under SPARK

NWA to engage consultants to help carry out road works under SPARK

The National Works Agency (NWA) has admitted that although it does not have the capacity to carry out the government’s massive road repair plan under several programmes, it will hire consultants to help. to carry out the work.

The entity has already engaged contractors as part of the government’s ambitious $45 billion Shared Prosperity program through the accelerated improvement of our road network, according to NWA head of communications and customer service Stephen Shaw. (SPARK), one of Jamaica’s largest ever road and water repair initiatives. .

Scheduled to begin shortly, SPARK aims to significantly improve Jamaica’s infrastructure, with a focus on crucial improvements to road networks and water systems.

“We have requested and received permission to engage consultants in relation to the major works we are going to carry out. So, as part of SPARK, we hired consultants to help us deploy the SPARK program. Other entities are going to join us because SPARK is very involved in the whole range of things that we’re going to do — I’m talking about water, roads, telecommunications — and so we have to make sure that the corridors are properly designed . So engineering has to be a key part, and that’s going to be the key part of what we’re going to do,” Shaw told reporters and editors on last week’s show. Monday exchange with the Jamaica Observer.

“We know our internal gaps and so the government has agreed that we will procure services, and that will be an integral part of what we do under SPARK, as we have done with other major infrastructure works that we’ve done across the country,” Shaw added.

The NWA is also responsible for implementing the Emergency Relief, Emergency Assistance and Community Assistance (REACH) Road Rehabilitation Program, a comprehensive national road rehabilitation initiative valued at an initial $3 billion, announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in August this year.

This program is designed to address critical road infrastructure needs across the island, with a particular focus on damage caused by recent weather events, including Hurricane Beryl, as well as execution of the routine road maintenance. Earlier in December, the Prime Minister announced an additional $2 billion allocation under REACH to begin urgent repair work.

“As far as REACH is concerned, REACH is a response to a maintenance challenge that we are having, and so we are working with local companies, subcontracted companies to facilitate us and help us ensure that the selected routes that are targeted, that these are finished. And I think we have the capacity to get the work done because…$5 billion is not being spent all at once,” Shaw said.

Under the REACH program, each of the 63 constituencies will see funds allocated to carry out essential road repairs and maintenance, ensuring that all areas of the country benefit equitably.

Regarding the government’s end-of-year routine work initiative, the Constituency-Based Mitigation and Cleanup Program for which a significant portion of funds are dedicated to road rehabilitation, Shaw argued that t is a manageable undertaking for the entity depending on how it is managed. structure.

“Even with the end-of-year work, everything will not be finished before the Christmas holidays. Some aspects of the work will continue into early next year, including the patching aspect. A lot of what’s being done now is skidding related, but we’ve kind of suspended patching activities because of the heavy rains we’ve been experiencing,” he said, noting that patching work has since resumed.

One of several potholes seen in Newlands, Portmore (Photo: Garfield Robinson)