Pave-Zyme to Reduce Cost of Road Repairs

Minister of Transport and Works, Mike Henry, has said that the Government is seeking to reduce the cost of road repair projects and where applicable, will be utilising the Pave-Zyme soil stabilisation system.
“I am implementing the beginning of a programme to reduce the cost against the need for funding, which we don’t have,” Minister Henry said during a tour of damaged roadways and farm roads projects in South West St. Elizabeth on November 14.
The Pave-Zyme compound, he explained, will be combined with the traditional methods of road repairs where necessary. “This reduces the cost of road repairs somewhere between 15 and 40 per cent depending on the road, depending on whether it is used for agricultural, commercial and/or residential purposes,” he informed.
Referring to work underway on the Prospect roadway in the parish, where Pave-Zyme is being used, Minister Henry informed that: “In the case of this road, it will be sealed for it to have a longer life because it is going to be used for both residential and commercial,” noting that for some farm roads, “we may do it that it lasts maybe three years.”
Pave-Zyme is an enzyme-based organic and environmentally-friendly formula that bonds soil and increases compaction. It makes roads impervious to water and increases load bearing capacity, while reducing the amount of aggregate and other material needed to construct the road.
It contains more than 1,000 enzymes from different classes, all derived from plant sources. Its proprietary formulations makes it non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive and biodegradable.
Minister Henry said that the Government is expecting to receive a reduction in the price of the product because of the volume that will be bought.
Pave-Zyme has been used in Jamaica following the devastation of the road infrastructure by torrential storms in May-June 2002. The Caribbean Disaster Fund estimated the damage at about $1.3 billion. The product is exclusively marketed and distributed by United States-based company Omega Paving and Construction Management Group, LLC.