Contracts amounting to over half a billion dollars were signed at the Ministry of Transport and Works to effect repairs to several roads, drains and gullies across the island.

Chief among these was the one signed for the Fern Gully area in St. Ann. That contract was awarded to Surrey Paving and Aggregates Ltd in the amount of $123.3M. This is to carry out rehabilitation and overlay works on 4.6 kilometres of roadway from Swansea Jerk Shop, Colegate to Orange Hill, and part of Fern Gully. This forms stage one of a three-part project dubbed the Fern Gully Restoration and Rehabilitation Programme. The repairs on this corridor come following flood raisin which devastated Ocho Rios and parts of Fern Gully in April of last year.

Other contracts signed were as follows:

·  Ardenne High School in the amount of $23.7M. Contractor for this project is Gabion and Structures Co. Ltd.

·  Walderston to Contrivance in Manchester in the amount of $29.8M. Contractor – CAB Construction Ltd.

·  Wickham Road in St. Andrew in the amount of $29.3M. Contractor – LASCAR Fencing and Construction Ltd.

·  Guys Hill – Windsor Castle, Gayle – Dressikie Union Hill, Barclay’s Town Road, Windsor Castle – Wood Park, Heartlands culvert & road along with Bagnal Road in St. Mary. Contractor is Dwight’s Construction Company Ltd.

·  Morris Hill in the amount of $9.9M This particular contract is for river training works at Laughlands, Little River, part of the Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project, Segment 2.

·  The Main road from Gutters to Freetown in St. Catherine in the amount of $141M. This falls under package one of the Road Re-surfacing Programme. Contractor here is Pavement and Structures Ltd.

·  Construction of a re-inforced concrete wall and gully invert at Shortwood Drive in St. Andrew. This is part of the Emergency Repairs to Gully Network Tropical Storm Gustav Programme. The contract was awarded in the amount of $44,342,870.00.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister of Transport and Works said that the signing of the contracts was a demonstration that the Ministry was in touch with the plight of persons all over the island as far as the road infrastructure network was concerned and was doing something about it.

The Minister warned the contractors that shoddy work would not be tolerated. Said he, “ It is no secret that there have been instances where roads and other infrastructure are repaired and within a short time, fall into disrepair. Well, under this new dispensation, that type of shoddy work will not be tolerated.”