The National Works Agency held a community meeting at the Boulevard Baptist Hall on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 in preparation for the soon to begin road works on the Washington Boulevard road corridor.

The meeting saw presentations from various stakeholders associated with the project. These included Mr. Derrick Smith, MP for a portion of the area where the project is located; Mr. Alfonso Marshall, Project Director from the NWA; Mr. Lee Clarke Deputy Mayor from the KSAC and Mr. Peter Thompson who represented the contractor, Surrey Paving and Aggregates Ltd.

In his presentation, MP Derrick Smith said he was pleased to be associated with the project.  He implored persons from the constituency who might be seeking jobs with the project to follow the established rules and guidelines. He also took the opportunity to wish the project managers success noting that its completion would mean a more developed community.

Mr. Marshall from the NWA outlined details associated with the works. He said that funding for the project has been procured from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Jamaica (GOJ). The total cost is US$23.39M, $8.61 of which is coming from GOJ and $14.77 from the CDB. 2.75 km of roadway will be widened from the intersection of Constant Spring Road/Dunrobin Avenue to the Molynes Road/Washington Boulevard intersection. On completion, the roadway will boast six lanes, up from the existing two. Contract is scheduled to last from January, 2010 to May, 2011.

For his part, Mr. Peter Thompson representing the Contractor, Surrey Paving noted that the Project will be done in two phases. Phase one will see the South to North lane being completed first to be followed by the North to South lane which will be done in Phase two. He said that water trucks will be deployed to wet the areas being worked on during the days to combat dust nuisance.  

Following the various presentations, a number of persons from the large gathering posed questions to which members from the NWA and the contractor responded. Mr. Stephen Shaw, Communications and Customer Service Manager at the NWA was in charge of the proceedings for the evening.