FOR many years the idea of reviving the old Vernam Field airbase has been floated by many individuals in and out of the government. This is an idea of considerable merit and one, moreover, whose time might well have arrived. Yet what Jamaica needs is more than a new airport. It should be thinking of a modern, integrated transportation and services hub to serve the entire island as a perpetual engine of growth and sustained development.

Vernam Field, named after a French-American pilot shot down at the end of the First World War, had its origin in the well-known historical lendlease agreement between Great Britain and the United States during the Second World War. For material support in the allied war effort, Britain agreed in March 1941 to lease as potential naval and air bases to the United States several choice locations on many West Indian islands like Vernam Field in Clarendon and Chaguaramas outside Port of Spain. Vernam Field operated between 1941 and 1949 as an important military and aeronautical service centre for the US Army Air Force and later for the US Air Force. Given the origin of the name and the original purpose of its construction, the old name is not appropriate for any new development project. Yet the location remains ideal.

A new transportation hub in south central Clarendon should be designed to serve a number of integrated functions. First and foremost it should be a modern, state-of-the-art aeronautical centre. This implies four main divisions. One would be an airport with at least three runways capable of accepting the largest and heaviest passenger aircraft currently in service or likely to be produced in the next 50 years. Another division would be a large centre for cargo operations that could become a hub for trans-shipment across the Caribbean and throughout Central and South America. Air cargo represents a growing sector of today’s service industries. A third division would be designed to offer landing options for civilian aircraft operated by private companies and individuals. Finally, the fourth division should be a complex to store, fuel, repair and service all types of aircraft. During the war the United States flew bombers from Kansas and Nebraska to be serviced in Jamaica, so this service could attract clients in today’s competitive business climate.

There are a number of services integrally linked to a modern transportation hub. Every modern airport also has an active commercial centre within the airport. Piarco in Trinidad, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Barajas in Madrid, Frankfurt in Germany, Melbourne in Australia, as well as Narita and Kansai in Japan integrate the travel and commercial experiences very well. In these cases the airports are also large and diverse shopping centres. Yet shopping is only one of several indispensable services. Security, firefighting, flight controllers, and medical emergency services are all complementary necessities of any new entity.

Keeping these facilities efficient requires a long-term plan to create a permanent supply base outside the airport complex. The feeding stream begins with competently trained and certified personnel. Assuming that the area already has good primary and secondary schools, the University of Technology should be encouraged to open a branch near the complex for the specific training of skilled firefighters, air traffic controllers, avionic experts, medical personnel, and administrators. Of course an entirely new technically oriented university could be built for this specific purpose. Nor does this exhaust the collateral linkages that, like roots of a growing tree, would permanently energise the surrounding communities.

A large shopping mall like the Plaza de las Americas with its approximately 300 stores near the San Juan International Airport in Puerto Rico represents a sort of shopping alternative to Miami, Houston and Dallas. Moreover the clientele, especially the upscale segment, is largely non-local. Along with the shopping mall should be a large new state-ofthe art hospital constructed to serve residents of the region, emergency needs of the transportation complex, as well as foreigners looking for a tropical alternative to excellent medical care.

As no man is an island unto himself, no hub stands alone. The new Clarendon plan should consider as essential prerequisites consistent, adequate long-term sources of water and energy. Water is the indispensable blood of any sound operation. Adequate water could be a long-term problem. The area already has several small rivers, including the Milk River and the Rio Minho, but these might have to be supplemented by small dams, wells, or even desalination plants. At the very least, no modern water supply system can afford to be as inadequate and unreliable as the one that now serves Kingston.

Energy adequacy should be less problematic. The government should mandate that every new major construction be entirely green. That means that every building should generate 100 per cent of its energy needs and more than 50 per cent of its annual water needs. Present solar technology permits the economic production of electricity, and the inclusion of cisterns to collect rain water would reduce considerably the drain on regional sources.

Nor is this all. Several underutilised surrounding ports from Milk River Bay to Peake Bay could be developed as terminals for cruise ships to receive and discharge their passengers for air transport elsewhere, while at the same time servicing and provisioning their vessels during the stopover interval. Ground transportation services would also need attention. The nearby Highway 2000 serves as a fast connection to Kingston and Mandeville, and when completed should connect more distant places such as Port Antonio, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, and Negril. A fast, comfortable passenger train service might be considered to connect to a modern transport hub in lower Kingston, as well as to Negril and Montego Bay.

The jobs and services generated by this new transportation hub would boost the expansion of tourist hotels, restaurants, taxi services, bus services, rental car agencies and food suppliers. The most promising dimension of the plan lies in its sustainability and its interconnectivity with the rest of the island.