LOCALLY based Surrey Paving & Aggregate has been endorsed to dualise and improve a section of the St James leg of the North Coast Highway at $697.6 million.

The endorsement involves five kilometres of improvement along the Bogue main and other roads between Fairfield, also transforming the Reading intersection from two to four lanes, according to the Contractor General posting’s issued this month following the endorsement by the National Contracts Committee (NCC).

The National Works Agency (NWA) will be the overseeing government agency but declined to speak until the contract is approved by Cabinet. “I cannot speak to it at this time. We can talk after the process has been completed,” stated Stephen Shaw, manager of communication and customer service at the NWA in a written response to Business Observer queries. The NCC has endorsed the contract which awaits approval by Cabinet.

Surrey has previously been involved in many major road construction and infrastructure projects in Jamaica. The company is run by the Chang family who have been in construction in Jamaica for nearly four decades. In 1967, the late Clarence Chang, a land surveyor, started a construction company building schools, pipelines and roads, stated Surrey on its website. That company evolved during the 1970s and 1980s until, Surrey Paving & Aggregate Ltd was incorporated in 1994. Buying new plant and more sophisticated equipment, the company began competing for internationally tendered major projects.

The European Union, the major financier of the North Coast Highway, in February this year told the Business Observer that the construction of the North Coast Highway at euro80 million (approximately $10 billion), was the EU’s second highest spend for its list of ongoing projects. The roadway, which started in 1997 to connect Negril in Westmoreland to Port Antonio in Portland, approximately 230 km away, should be completed this year. However it has come under criticism as one of the most expensive projects per kilometre. In fact, the EU issued a directive some three years ago for the roadway to be completed or have the funding withdrawn.

The last major contract was signed in 2005 valued at J$5.7 billion, when the European Commission (EU) financed the reconstruction and rehabilitation of segment three of the Northern Coastal Highway. The government was to contribute just over J$1.86 billion towards the project. That contract was won by E PIHL and Son from Denmark and sub-contractor Lagan International from Northern Ireland. Segment three of the highway runs for approximately 96 kilometres — from Ocho Rios to Port Antonio — and marks the final phase of the construction of the Northern Coastal Highway. Segment one, runs from Negril to Montego Bay, and Segment two, runs from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios. The construction of the highway which commenced under the PJ Patterson led administration was aimed at:

• reducing vehicle operating costs;

• reducing time spent on cross island travel;

• decreasing incidences of flooding and related damage to the road surface;

• creating employment for a wide cross section of Jamaican workers and increased patronage for local businesses, particularly those in the food and beverage and hospitality sectors.