KINGSTON, Jamaica — The People’s National Party’s (PNP) Shadow Minister of Transport and Works, Mikael Phillips, is calling on the government to immediately address the critical shortage of asphalt, which he said has led to a crisis in the road construction sector as most of the road building and repair projects are at a standstill.

In a statement this afternoon, Phillips said that many roads had been prepared by the National Works Agency (NWA) contractors and in some cases holes were made even deeper in the preparatory phase.

Phillips said contractors have temporarily abandoned the work sites, leaving many of the roadways in an even more dangerous condition.

He said the situation has been further compounded by the National Water Commission (NWC) which is in the middle of its loss reduction programme and several roadways have been dug up to facilitate work crew accessing NWC pipelines.

Phillips argued that the situation cannot remain as is without increasing the risk of vehicular collisions or damage to vehicles because of the poor state of road surfaces.

The PNP spokesman added that the asphalt shortage was due to improper planning because the PetroJam refinery is closed for maintenance every year around this time and the government should never have allowed this crisis to befall the country.

“The blame for this should be laid squarely at the feet of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, which is responsible for the road projects and the refinery, and it is tripping over itself in a large inefficient and unwieldy bureaucracy instead putting in place the required logistics to get adequate supplies,” said Phillips.