KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, has announced that the Government has initiated a $500 million infrastructure programme to rehabilitate roads across the island.

Speaking in Kintyre, East Rural St Andrew, on Wednesday, where she officially opened a bridge, the Prime Minister said the road improvement project is geared at improving the quality of life for many people.  

Simpson Miller pointed out that  $200 million of the sum will be spent to patch and repair roads. “This work will commence immediately, and is projected to be spent in tranches up to the end of the financial year in March 2014,” she said.

“Another $130 million will be spent on mitigation work and bushing, and again, this work is to commence immediately, and continue through to the third week of December. Another $51 million is to be spent in some parishes on bushing and drain cleaning…and continue through to the end of the year,” she added.

A river training exercise will also be a part of the programme, where some $70 million will be spent, and includes drain rehabilitation. That segment of the work will take place over the next 12 weeks.

“I have instructed that another $50 million be spent specifically on replacing manholes and guardrails,” she said, noting that the physically challenged and other vulnerable persons must be protected on the roadways.

The Kintyre bridge, which was constructed at a cost of $100 million, is a central route for persons in the communities of Clarke Street, St Joseph Road, Bedward Pastures, Cosmo Mews, and other areas. 

 In the past, whenever it rained, the community was cut off from other areas, as the ford was always destroyed.