Govt Moving Towards Integrated Infrastructure Planning Framework

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is shifting towards integrated infrastructure planning, breaking away from the fragmented approach that has led to inefficiencies and higher costs.

The integrated framework will ensure that roads, drainage, water, sewerage, utility corridors, slope stability, and climate risk are considered together from the project design stage and sequenced in a disciplined way through implementation.

Dr. Holness, who was making his contribution to the 2026/2027 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday (March 19), said that Hurricane Melissa has, among other things, reinforced that infrastructure cannot continue to be planned, designed, and built in silos, noting that this approach “has cost the island dearly”.

“Roads are rehabilitated and then torn up again because a pipeline issue was not anticipated. Drainage deficiencies shorten the life of otherwise sound roadworks. Slope instability undermines the investments made without adequate assessment of the surrounding terrain. This fragmented reactive model is inefficient, expensive, and wholly inconsistent with the scale and ambition of our national reconstruction vision,” Dr. Holness said.

The Prime Minister noted that integration planning must be matched by stronger infrastructure governance, which involves reform of how the national road network is classified and managed.

“At present, roads of vastly different purposes, economic significance and strategic importance are treated in broadly the same way. A modern road designation framework will allow us to distinguish clearly between local access roads, parish connectors, strategic economic corridors, tourism routes, agricultural links, and emergency and evacuation corridors,” he said.

He noted that these distinctions are not only important for engineering but for budgeting, prioritisation, maintenance planning, and national resilience.

Dr. Holness said that the proposed One Road Authority will have an important role to play in this regard as it will bring clearer accountability, better coordination, and a more unified approach to asset management across the network.

“But the larger objective is straightforward; we must move from a culture of reactive repair to one of disciplined, lifecycle-managed infrastructure stewardship, planning well, building well, maintaining consistently, and never again paying twice for work that should have been done right the first time,” he pointed out.

Dr. Holness said that the Authority will also hold road users accountable when they destroy the roads.

“Those persons who are spilling concrete on our roads, when it is established, you will be prosecuted because that entity will also have the power to prosecute,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister noted that the modern highway network being established by Government will encircle the entire island, and connect every parish, every port, every airport, and every major economic centre into a single seamless system.

“The objectives of this network are to reduce travel times and transportation costs for businesses and families, to open new corridors for agriculture, industrial and tourism development, and to strengthen resilience by ensuring that no community is ever again isolated because of a disaster and, of course, to create new lands for low-income housing,” he said.