RESPONDING to critics of his Government plans to start rehabilitating the badly ruined Junction main road in St Mary on Thursday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness explained that only $167 million would be spent on the road over the next six months.

Holness confirmed that $167 million of the $626 million to be spent on the road would be used up between October, when the project is likely to start, and March 31 when the 2017/18 fiscal year ends.

Asked about the decision to start the project at this time, when a by-election is likely in the area, Holness said that it had to do with the availability of funds and, in any case, the timing was decided prior to the death of Member of Parliament for St Mary South Eastern, Dr Winston Green.

Holness also explained that the initial total cost of $597.7 million to be spent on the project over time was contained in information the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) had compiled for him on July 25, in response to questions tabled previously by Dr Green.

He said that he had taken the answers to the questions to the House of Representatives the same day, but was unable to respond as Question Time had already passed. The House adjourned on July 25 for its summer break and did not resume until September 12, four weeks after Green’s sudden death on August 14.

The likelihood of a by-election being called during the project raised the temperature of the Opposition, which has cautioned the Government against using the resources to gain votes.

But, Holness said in response Thursday: “I am sure that if Dr Green was here today, he would have been very happy with the decision of the Government.”

He informed the briefing that the project was first conceived in 2008, under a Kuwaiti loan agreement, by the then JLP Government who was unable to complete the initial process as it lost power in 2011.

He said that it was restored by his Government on returning to power in February 2016, and a Cabinet decision was taken in August, 2016 to award the contract to Surrey Paving & Aggregate Company Limited. However, by that time the $97.7 million initially available under the Kuwaiti deal was no longer available and the Government undertook to finance the project from the budget beginning in 2017/18.

Holness noted that the prolonged delay in awarding the civil works contract resulted in fluctuation costs of between 12 per cent and 15 per cent being tacked on to the total cost.

The proposed construction work includes road realignment, road widening and construction of shoulders, relocation of water, electricity and telephone utilities, construction of drainage works, pavement upgrading, road markings, installation of road furniture and traffic control devices.

Work is expected to commence by October and should be completed within 14 months.