Gov’t Undertaking Strategic Road Maintenance Review

The Government is conducting a Strategic Road Maintenance Review, focusing on institutional and governance arrangements, with a view to establishing a single authority to streamline oversight and governance.

“With this in place we can have clear lines of enforcement against persons who destroy our roads. It is particularly disturbing to see concrete spilled on our roads and no accountability for clearing and restoration,” Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, said.

He was making his 2025/26 Budget Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on Thursday (March 20).

Dr. Holness pointed out that, for decades, road maintenance in Jamaica has suffered from issues of fragmented responsibility among the National Works Agency (NWA), local municipal corporations, and the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as inadequate preventive maintenance.

He said that over the years, multiple agencies have been responsible for different aspects of road upkeep, leading to inefficiencies, gaps in accountability and inconsistent standards.

Additionally, Dr. Holness said a lack of structured, preventive maintenance has resulted in roads deteriorating faster than they should, increasing the burden of costly emergency repairs.

“This reactive approach is neither sustainable nor cost-effective,” the Prime Minister maintained.

Meanwhile, Dr. Holness thanked the World Bank and United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office for providing technical assistance with the review, including information on approaches and models for road maintenance that have been successful in other countries.

“We are also integrating geospatial technologies and AI (artificial intelligence)-driven solutions to improve planning and efficiency. We have significantly mapped and referenced over 90 per cent of all roads in Jamaica. This information will help us to create an intelligence register of all our roads to use in spatial planning and, importantly, in developing a fiscal preventative maintenance plan which aligns to the engineered life span of the road,” he said.

Dr. Holness pointed out that, “this also lays the basis for smarter and connected infrastructure to address traffic, public safety, civil defence, security and logistics.”

“To this end, I have given directions to the NWA and Spatial Data Management Branch to begin work on developing a uniformed address and ZIP code for Jamaica, including the use of digital addresses,” the Prime Minister added.

Dr. Holness noted that consequent on decades of underinvestment, the Government is shifting to a structured, sustainable, tech-enabled system of road maintenance.

This approach, he said, will extend the lifespan of roads, reduce frequent repairs and improve safety.

“This Government is not just rebuilding roads, we are building a smarter, more resilient future for Jamaica,” Dr. Holness underscored.