THE National Works Agency (NWA) has acknowledged that while it does not have the required capacity to carry out the Government’s massive road repair plan under several programmes, it will be engaging consultants to assist with carrying out the works.

According to communications and customer service manager at the NWA Stephen Shaw the entity has already engaged contractors under the Government’s ambitious $45-billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme, one of Jamaica’s largest-ever road and water repair initiatives.

Slated to get underway shortly, SPARK is aimed at significantly upgrading Jamaica’s infrastructure, with a focus on critical improvements to road networks and water systems.

“We have sought to and gotten permission to engage consultants as it relates to the major work that we’re going to be doing. So under SPARK, we have actually engaged consultants to assist us in the rolling out of the SPARK programme. There are some other entities that will come on board because SPARK is very involved in terms of the gamut of things that we are going to be doing — I’m talking about water, road, telecoms — and so we have to ensure that the corridors are properly designed. So engineering has to be a key part, and it will be the key part of that which we are going to be doing,” Shaw told reporters and editors during last week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

“We know of our internal shortcomings and so the Government has agreed for us to buy services, and that’s going to be part and parcel of what we do under SPARK, as we have done with other major infrastructure works that we have done across the country,” Shaw added.

The NWA also has the responsibility to execute the Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) road rehab programme, a comprehensive national road rehabilitation initiative valued at an initial $3 billion, which was announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in August this year.

This programme is designed to address critical road infrastructure needs across the island with a specific focus on damage caused by recent weather events, including Hurricane Beryl, as well as the execution of routine road maintenance. Earlier in December, the prime minister announced a further allotment of $2 billion under REACH to begin urgent repair work.

“In so far as REACH is concerned, REACH is a response to a maintenance challenge that we have, and so we are working with local firms, contracting companies to facilitate and to assist us in ensuring that selected roads that are being targeted, that these are done. And I think that we have the ability to execute the works because… $5 billion is not being spent all at once,” Shaw said.

Under the REACH programme, each of the 63 constituencies will see funds allocated to conduct essential road repairs and maintenance, ensuring that all regions of the country benefit equitably.

Turning to the Government’s routine end-of-year work initiative, the constituency-based mitigation and cleaning programme for which a significant portion of funds are geared towards road rehabilitation, Shaw argued that this is a manageable undertaking for the entity based on how it is structured.

“Even with the end-of-year works, everything is not going to be done by the time the Christmas holidays break comes in. We will have some aspects of the work continuing into early next year, especially the patching aspect. So much of what is being done now is related to debushing, but we kind of suspended somewhat the patching activities because of the heavy rains that we were experiencing,” he said, noting that the patching has since resumed.

One of many potholes observed in Newlands, Portmore (Photo: Garfield Robinson)