Community consultation to be part of SPARK programme, says PM
PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness has announced that a consultative approach, in terms of reaching out for input from community members, will be included in the Government’s $40-billion road rehabilitation campaign under the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to Our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.
Holness made the declaration on Wednesday while addressing the Jamaica Dental Association’s (JDA) 60th annual dental convention at the Royalton Blue Waters Hotel in Corral Spring, Trelawny.
“This exercise which I have announced, the SPARK Programme, will for the first time allocate a sizeable portion of the national budget to repair roads. We are going to introduce a new element to it, and this element is consultation,” Holness told the convention.
“We have allocated $40 billion over the next two years, and that will be focused on our roads. This is not focused on highways; this is focused on secondary roads, main roads, community roads, and some possible housing scheme roads,” Holness outlined. “What we are saying is, we want the community to come together and help to make the determination as to which roads become priority. We will not be able to fix every road that is in need of repair, but instead of having people protesting all over, let’s all come together as much as we can and, in a democratic process, determine the priority for roads to be repaired.”
Over the years, Jamaica has continually experienced a by-now familiar phenomenon where residents in different communities across the country block roads and stage demonstrations to protest the poor road conditions, with many raising concerns such as the increasing costs to repair damage to motor vehicles caused by potholes or the danger of being robbed by lurking criminals when slowing down to navigate damaged roadways.
The SPARK Programme’s $40-billion road project is aimed at modernising more than 2,000 roads across Jamaica. It will target community, parochial and secondary roads where the surfaces have been scoured or filled with potholes, but the subsurface and drainage is generally intact.
Holness told Wednesday’s meeting that the impact of roadway damage has taken place over a gradual period of time as opposed to occurring suddenly, referencing the imagery of gradually decaying teeth to emphasise his point.
“There are 22,000 kilometres of roadways in Jamaica, and we estimate that probably half of them are in a state of disrepair. This didn’t happen since 2016; the conversation may sound like it just happened in 2016, but as far as I can recall in my 52 years, we’ve always had problems with roads. In fact, I recall one of my favourite politicians saying that he will make Jamaica pothole-free by a certain year, which has long passed 10 or so years ago,” said Holness, referencing a promise made in 2002 by Robert Pickersgill, the minister of transport and works at the time, that Jamaica would have no potholes by 2003.
“We have this big challenge with roads. What caused it? Well, first of all, we just did not have the revenues to repair our roads; it’s just the reality. And when you leave the roads neglected, especially if there’s heavy traffic, and you have rains, and with the weather that we have, it’s pretty much like not caring for your teeth, they will develop cavities,” Holness added. “You can extend the life of your roads indefinitely by having a serious maintenance programme, so as a crack appears, you seal it; as a pothole appears, you rehabilitate; you prevent water, and you have the proper size drainage. We haven’t been able to do that consistently, so our road network has fallen into serious disrepair.”