Contracts Signed for the Start of Work Under SPARK Programme

Work is expected to begin this month on the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.

The Government, on Thursday (December 5) signed four contracts valued at $36.04 billion, with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), to undertake works under the project.

Work will commence in St. Andrew Western, which is represented by Member of Parliament, Anthony Hylton, and in St. Elizabeth North Western, which is represented by Member of Parliament, Hon. J.C. Hutchinson.

Manchester North Western, St. Andrew North Western, and St. Andrew East Rural will also benefit from works during the initial stages of the project.

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, in his address at the signing ceremony, said the construction contracts are in four packages and are scheduled to be undertaken over two years, with an additional one-year defects liability period, during which the contractor will be responsible for fixing any defects in the project.

“An additional $5 billion will also be spent on water infrastructure, of which $2 billion will be spent on water mains. So, in total, it’s about $38 billion that will be spent on infrastructure that will be in the ground,” he noted.

The four packages are as follows – Package 1, Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Thomas; Package 2, St. Catherine and Clarendon; Package 3, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Hanover; and Package 4, St. James, Trelawny, St. Ann, St. Mary and Portland.

“That would total… overall, approximately $38 billion [with] $36 billion applicable to road infrastructure,” the Prime Minister noted.

He said that the National Works Agency (NWA) will be responsible for the management and implementation of all works and will be supported by teams of engineers, consultants and other technical professionals.

CHEC’s Country Manager, Dangran Bi, pledged that the four contract packages will be executed at the “highest international standards of design and construction”.

Meanwhile, during the contract signing ceremony, the Programme’s website https://sparkjamaica.gov.jm/ was launched.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic, Growth and Job Creation, Hon. Robert Morgan, said the website will give the public all the information about the SPARK Programme.

“One of the important aspects of the website is a document centre where it will give the public access to all publicly available documents related to the programme. For example, the roads that will be prepared will go on the website,” Mr. Morgan said.

He also mentioned that the governance framework will be placed on the website.

“The NWA has come up with a governance framework – it was approved by Cabinet – which will govern how the SPARK programme is executed and how the accountability of the SPARK programme will be manifested,” the Minister said.

The Government undertook a series of islandwide community consultations to engage residents on the programme and to determine the roads to be repaired.

Sixty main roads and approximately 600 priority roadways across 63 constituencies have been identified for rehabilitation under the initiative.