THE National Works Agency (NWA) has turned to Petrojam Limited as a shortage of asphalt severely impacts roadwork across the island.

NWA Acting Manager, Communications and Customer Service Ramona Lawson told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that Petrojam had indicated that it was working overtime to get things back on track.

Lawson said Petrojam, Jamaica’s sole petroleum refinery, provides some of the raw materials used to make asphalt. While not explaining the reason behind the shortage, she said that the NWA was in constant dialogue with asphalt providers.

The communications manager was responding to a National Water Commission (NWC) press release in which the company said that it was not able to reinstate several roads because of the current shortage of asphalt.

“The National Water Commission is reporting that the reinstatement of road surfaces disturbed by essential work on its Non-Revenue Water Reduction Programme in Kingston and St Andrew, and other projects islandwide is being slowed by a current shortage of asphalt,” the NWC release said.

Yesterday Lawson said that the two government agencies had been working in tandem to reinstate roads across the island. She also said that NWC was informed on July 11 about the shortage of asphalt, but said that “cuts” are still being added to the NWA’s list. What this means is that whenever NWC carries out drills to install essential devices, NWA would follow up with rehabilitation work. But despite notice of a shortage in asphalt NWC has continued to carry out drills.

The NWC release said that more than 3,400 square metres of road reinstatement had already been done by NWA on behalf of the company in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine at a cost of approximately $10 million.

However, NWC did not say over what period work took place or how the money was spent.

NWC said, while reinstatement of its road cuts had been contracted out to NWA under a co-operative agreement between the two entities, NWA has been encountering difficulties in accessing sufficient quantities of asphalt to reinstate all the areas after work had been done by the water commission.

“As such, the preparation of additional areas for reinstatement has had to be scaled down to regulate the number of locations that are opened up and which cannot be attended to immediately. The National Water Commission regrets any inconvenience caused to the public and asks for continued understanding and patience,” the NWC release said.