Gov’t Commits $25B to Rehabilitate 37 Priority Roads Under SPARK Programme

The Government has earmarked $25 billion to rehabilitate 37 priority roads under the Main Road component of the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.

The details were unveiled during the programme’s launch on Thursday (July 2) at Jamaica House, where Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, delivered the keynote address.

Covering approximately 170 kilometres across 11 parishes, the initiative will directly benefit an estimated 900,000 citizens.

In Kingston and St. Andrew, the roads slated for rehabilitation include sections of Red Hills Road (from Perkins Boulevard to Swain Spring Road), Molynes Road, Washington Boulevard, Seaward Drive-Olympic Way, Oxford Road, Stony Hill–Golden Spring, part of Cooperage-Gordon Town, and Sir Florizel Glasspole Boulevard-Windward Road.

The roads slated for rehabilitation in St. Catherine include sections of Braeton Road–Salt Pond Road, Gregory Park Main Road, Port Henderson Road, Spanish Town Bypass, St. Johns Road, Linstead Bypass (Bog Walk-Vanity Fair), Old Harbour-Freetown, Glengoffe-Williamsfield, and Hill Run Road.

In Clarendon, the roads slated for rehabilitation include sections of Four Paths-Free Town; May Pen-Sour Sop Turn; Chapleton–Pennants; and Spalding-Cave Valley. In Manchester, works will cover Royal Flat-Caledonia Road; Greenvale-Spur Tree; and the stretch from Caines Shop to Highgate Hall.

Roads to be rehabilitated in Trelawny include parts of Bounty Hall-Wakefield, Troy-Warsop, as well as Browns Town-Stewart Town, Claremont-Golden Grove, Priory-Bamboo in St. Ann; as well as Chovey-Claremont, Gayle-Guys Hill, and Port Maria- Islington in St. Mary.

For St. James, the programmed roads are Howard Cooke Boulevard-Alice Eldermire Drive and part of Montego Bay-Great River; while in Hanover, part of Great River-Sandy Bay; Sandy Bay-Lucea; Lucea-Green Island; Green Island-Parish Border; and Parish Border to Negril in Westmoreland.

In his address, Prime Minister Holness emphasised that the SPARK Programme is designed to rehabilitate critical infrastructure, reduce traffic congestion, and drive increased economic activity.

“These projects are all over Jamaica… they will certainly improve traffic flow within urban centres right across Jamaica,” he said.

Dr. Holness noted that the initiative forms part of broader efforts to improve road conditions across the country, highlighting that community roads are also being addressed under the SPARK Programme.

“This programme, therefore, will address the main roads. We have issued 31 of the roads as work orders, and that means that China Harbour [Engineering Company] (CHEC) who is the contractor on the project, will begin to do the proprietary works and then move into actual construction. Some of them could start within a year… others may take up to a year and a half to actually see the works done, but the public should be assured that these programmes are now officially launched and in train,” he said

Dr. Holness advised that the Government is developing a policy framework to support contractors, enabling them to partner with the State in undertaking large-scale infrastructure programmes.

“For us to be able to fix all the roads in Jamaica, we need contractors who can work at scale. One of the challenges that we are facing with the current SPARK programme is that we simply just don’t have the contracting horsepower to manage all the roads all at once… and the Government is contemplating how we can support the development of a contractor class in Jamaica.

“We do have some contractors who are exhibiting that level of enterprise… that we require to do this level of operations… but there are some that [do not], and we will have to address that. So as we move with this large project, with what we are going to be doing under NaRRA (National Road Rehabilitation and Infrastructure Agency), contractors [will be] a critical partner in our growth and development,” he said.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with responsibility for Works, Hon. Robert Morgan, stressed that SPARK is not a patching programme but rather a comprehensive rehabilitation of Jamaica’s road infrastructure.

“SPARK is a $45-billion infrastructure programme… and for the first time in Jamaica’s history, over 300 community roads are now in the process of being constructed. There has never been a time in Jamaica’s history that the Government has attempted to rehabilitate 300 roads in the span of two years,” he said.

Mr. Morgan underscored that SPARK roads will not simply look good upon completion; they will be properly engineered, rigorously supervised, and built to endure for generations.

Meanwhile, National Works Agency (NWA) Senior Director for Project Implementation, Varden Downer, explained that the roads were selected based on their potential to maximise benefits to Jamaicans by improving connectivity, reducing travel delays, enhancing access to essential services, and supporting economic growth.

“We actually selected the main roads based on a data-driven approach. So these were not based on the constituency that they exist in, but were national roads for improvement. So our primary objective was to focus on connectivity and accessibility, traffic flow and mobility and safety and resilience,” he said.