$8b road bill

Some St Thomas communities still cut off

INGRID BROWN, Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Jamaica Defence Force soldiers work feverishly to install a Bailey bridge across the Hope River at Harbour View in eastern Kingston yesterday. The bridge is scheduled to be opened this morning, but will only accommodate single-lane traffic. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

Eight billion dollars is the estimated cost for repairs to the island's road network and bridges which were damaged when Tropical Storm Gustav dumped heavy rains on the island last week, according to Transport Minister Mike Henry.

Henry said the final figures are not yet available as the assessments are being carried out. However, from all indications the cost should not be too far from this figure.
Already Henry said the Government has had to re-order Bailey bridges, at a cost of £2 million to replenish the stock, given that the hurricane season is not yet over.

"To replace the two bridges (Hope River bridge in Kingston and Georgia Bridge in St Mary) alone are $2 billion and we can make that point because we just finished building one (Yallahs bridge)," Henry told the Observer.

He said Cabinet is now examining the various sources, such as multilateral agencies, from where funds can be sourced.
However, the minister was not very hopeful about receiving an international loan, since he said Jamaica may not qualify as Gustav was not a category one hurricane.

"They may say it is not even a category one that hit us, just like they tell us we are not poor enough for certain things," he said.

Henry said based on initial assessment, this $8 billion figure could be more, but not less.

"I think it is $8 billion, because before Gustav, the Buff Bay Valley cost $289 million, and I hear you can't recognise it now, so I assume it will be about $489 million," he said.
Buff Bay Valley in Portland had suffered extensive damage during the passage of two previous hurricanes.

Before Gustav, he said the Sandy Gully repairs were projected at $667 million and other critical gullies were at $500 million.

This, he said, is given the fact that they have not yet calculated the cost of repairs to some other parishes.
"For example, I got $502 million merely to clean gullies and clear and resurface roads, but when they gave me the cost for Kingston it was at $21 million," he said. "But Mr [Andrew] Holness alone told me that he needs $30 million for two gullies."

Henry said he did not want to use a past approach and would prefer to err on the side of caution by using the higher figure and working downwards.

Meanwhile, he said the assessment is now being done on the Bog Walk Gorge, which was extensively damaged, to determine a cost for repairs. Fortunately, Henry said it does not appear that the bridge was damaged, which should speed up the repair process.

Initially it was proposed that it would take up to a month for the gorge to be reopened to vehicular traffic. However, Henry said he was working to reduce that.

In the meantime, Henry said not much can be done at this point to fast-track the Mount Rosser segment of Highway 2000.

"Yes, we are considering speeding up Mount Rosser, but I can't give you a date when this will be done as we are 50 per cent over the initial cost," Henry said. "That is a US$50-million increase plus adjustments to fuel bill that we hadn't bargained for."

Henry said the priority areas for attention are the Hope River, Junction including the Georgia Bridge, the Bog Walk Gorge and the Sandy and McGregor gullies.

Yesterday, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister and member of parliament for West St Thomas, James Robertson, said he was still assessing the damage in his constituency. He said communities such as Hagley Gap and Pen Line are still cut off, due to damage to the road network. Residents of Beach Gate in Nine Miles have also been marooned since this community was cut off .

Member of parliament for Eastern St Thomas, Fenton Ferguson, said there has been significant damage to the road network in several sections of his constituency such as Spring Bank where the residents have been marooned for days now. "The road collapsed and they are cut off from the Bachelor Hall main road," he said.