North Coast Highway second leg stalls
UP to late yesterday evening, National Works Agency (NWA) representatives were locked in a meeting with the contractors building the second leg of the North Coast Highway project, trying to broker an agreement that would get workers back on the job.
The roughly 350 employees stopped working after the Argentinian contractors balked at demands for a salary increase. The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the National Workers’ Union are representing them.
“They have served a claim on the contractors for an increase in salaries and the contractors are saying that the rates that they are paying the different category workers were set by the Joint Industrial Council,” the NWA’s public relations officer for western Jamaica told the Observer. “So (the stalemate surrounds the contractors’ claim that) they are paying the JIC rates and the unions are demanding an increase above the JIC rate. That is really the bone of contention.”
Ground was broken on the US$60-million 95 kilometre Montego Bay to Ocho Rios leg of the project on September 14 last year and the completion date is April 2004.
Obviously still smarting from the delays and cost overruns that plagued the Montego Bay to Negril first leg, Prime Minister P J Patterson made it clear that he did not want this portion of the project to experience any hiccups.
“We have learnt a great deal from what happened on segment one and we are determined that history must not repeat itself,” the prime minister had told an audience gathered under a tent in Braco, Trelawny for the groundbreaking.
The first leg of the North Coast Highway project was plagued by numerous delays sparked by a variety of problems, including strikes and quitting contractors. It has been a source of frustration for the Patterson administration, which has listed the highway among its achievements in election campaign brochures.
Government officials have told the Observer that the first leg is to be officially opened in early September.
The second segment was divided into four sections in a bid to make it more manageable and easier to complete.
The 27.42 kilometres from Montego Bay to the proposed Falmouth bypass will be the first section, while the 41.77 kilometres from the bypass to Salem will be covered under sections two and three. The fourth section will include the 21.81 kilometres between Salem and Ocho Rios.