$500 Million for Bogue Rehabilitation, $618.9 Million for Hope River Bridge

The Bogue Road Rehabilitation Project in the Ministry of Transport and Works is to receive $500 million in the 2010/11 fiscal year to support the North Coast Highway Improvement Project, through the upgrading of the Bogue Road.
This will reduce the current traffic congestion and improve the level of safety on that corridor.
As set out in the Estimates of Expenditure now before the House of Representatives, the money will to go toward completing land acquisition, completion of boundary fences and civil works for sections one and two, and provide payment for variations. The Government of Jamaica will be bearing $300 million of the project cost, with the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) providing the remainder.
Up to March 2010, the completion of design work was completed, while 85 per cent of lands acquired and construction works 70 per cent completed, with the building of boundary fencing ongoing. The project’s original duration was October 2008 to July 2010, but it has been extended to May 2011.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Infrastructure Rehabilitation Programme has been allotted $618.9 million to begin construction of the Hope River Bridge and achieve 90 per cent completion. The project aims to rehabilitate essential portions of the main road system and ensure physical continuity of the primary road network, thereby minimising the impact of flooding.
Up to March 2010, the Hope River designs had been completed, and the contract for the construction of the bridge awarded. The project, which was originally scheduled for February 2008 to March 2010, has been extended to March 2012. It is chiefly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, in the sum of $569.3 million.
In addition, the Road Improvement Programme has received an allocation of $240 million to continue with institutional strengthening of the road safety unit, and carry out road maintenance works. The funds will be used to begin institutional strengthening, and a civil works, and a maintenance road safety programme.
Partially funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the projects seeks to promote the creation of a self-sustaining system for the provision of a safe and reliable national road network; support the Ministry in the implementation of a new framework for administering the main road network; and strengthen the core activities of planning, programming, and budgeting for the road sector, and the construction of roads within the network, under the auspices of the National Works Agency. The project is slated to begin in April 2010, and end by March 2015.