REPAIRS being done by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to the Jubilee and Red Rose markets in downtown Kingston are expected to be completed soon, for handing over to the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) by the end of May.

Gary Robotham, commercial services manager at the KSAMC, told the Commercial Services Committee’s March meeting that the UDC timeline for handing over the Red Rose Fish Market and the Jubilee Market would have been the end of March.

However, the UDC, in reply to questions from the Jamaica Observer recently, said that it has faced challenges in completing the repairs to both markets.

The Jubilee Market, which was built in 1888 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, was destroyed by fire on January 4, 2009. The cost to repair the Jubilee Market is $53,014,48.90 while the Red Rose Fish Market repairs cost $43,062,140 , UDC said.

According to the UDC, the delay in completing the repairs to the Jubilee Market is due to “heavy periods of downpour, in particular, the impact of rains on material supply and downtime on site activities”.

UDC also said that redesign to the market’s internal structures also posed a challenge.

Heavy rains also affected the repairs being done at the Red Rose Fish Market, in addition, “delays were experienced with the supply of concrete to the site, as suppliers were also impacted by the rainfall as well as the high demand for aggregate to manufacture the pre-mixed concrete”, UDC said.

In the meantime, UDC said special design features at the Red Rose market are energy-saving translucent sheeting to admit defused sunlight, and thermal-insulated concrete for cooler boxes as well as water storage and provisions for future solar harvesting.

Energy-saving translucent sheeting is also a special feature at the Jubilee Market, where contractors have also been given instructions to retain the façade of the original market.

— Claudienne Edwards