MONTEGO BAY, St James

Pauline Reid, President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry has described as a ‘slap in the face’ news coming out of the National Works Agency (NWA) that the dualisation of the Bogue Highway will not start this month as promised.

“It, the dualisation of the Bogue Highway, is still a vexing problem for Montegonians and other users of the roadways in the western end of the city. The work which the National Works Agency had committed to, should have commenced by the middle of August but has again been placed on hold for no apparent reason,” a riled-up Reid told the Observer West.

The Bogue Highway, the main connection between Montego Bay and the western parishes of Hanover, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth constitutes a daily nightmare for motorists during peak hour traffic early morning and late afternoon.

Former Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller announced the venture, among a raft of infrastructure developments for Montego Bay, during a People’s National Party rally in Sam Sharpe Square leading up to the recently concluded general elections. She declared then that funding had been identified for the project.

“As soon as design work is finalised, permission from the Contract Committee is obtained, and after bidding and everything, we will be able to complete the work,” she promised.

However, without explaining why, communications and customer service manager with the National Works Agency (NWA), Stephen Shaw, said the project had been put on hold before the elections which were won last Monday by the Bruce Golding- led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

“Everything is on hold until things iron themselves out. The project was put on hold prior to the elections. Now that we have a new administration we have to revisit all of those things which are yet to commence,” Shaw told the Observer West. “We were hoping that we would have been able to commence work this month but of course that may not happen given the changes that have taken place.”

Shaw explained that prior to the suspension of the project, which was slated to commence this month, the design work had been completed and negotiation with contractors well ahead.

“The design has been done, negotiation with the contractors were well advanced and a project team was in place. So quite a bit of work has already been done insofar as the dualisation of the highway was concerned,” he explained.

But his explanation did not mollify Reid.

“No tangible reason has been given as to why the work has been pushed back. we are just tired of what seems to be empty promises that somehow do not materialise.”

Reid argued that if the groundbreaking for the venture was scheduled for mid-August, then the “necessary contractual obligations must have been fulfilled and the necessary funds put in place.”

“We cannot understand then, why the work has now been placed on hold when it should have commenced in the slow period and well underway before the start of the winter season and the Christmas rush”.

Added Reid: “It now means that we will have to go back to the drawing board to seek dialogue with the new government to see how we can get them to fast track the work to facilitate the congestion problem in the western end of the island.”