KINGSTON, Jamaica — China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is the selected contractor for the Government’s $45 billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) project.

The project, which will see more than 600 roads islandwide rehabilitated, includes a $5 billion component for water infrastructure.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness addressed the contract signing between the Government and CHEC at Jamaica House Thursday morning. He also declared the road situation in Jamaica a national emergency and allocated $2 billion to effect repairs to the main road network to get them up to what he said is “a drivable condition”.

The prime minister shared that through the International Competitive Bidding Process, eight construction companies responded to the request for pre-qualification. There were two local and six international companies.

“Only five companies, however, were successful at the end of this phase of the process,” Holness said.

He also said that the request for bid-proposal was sent to the five pre-qualified construction companies.

“Four of the five contractors submitted bid-proposals for the four works packages at the end of August 2024. Two  of those four did not make it past this stage and it was then down to two companies,” he outlined.

He added that “after the evaluation, and consistent with the Public Procurement Act and Regulations, we entered into negotiations with the highest-ranking bidder, China Harbour Engineering Company”.

CHEC will undertake the work in four packages: Package 1 – Kingston and St Andrew; Package 2 – St Catherine and Clarendon; Package 3 -Manchester, St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Hanover; and Package 4 -St James, Trelawny, St Ann and St Mary.