KINGSTON, Jamaica— Jamaica’s so-called orphaned roads may finally find a home and, with it, the necessary funding to keep them in a drivable condition with the implementation of the $45 billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) project.

Orphaned roads include those that were built decades ago in housing schemes and sub-divisions. Some may even have been private roads.

What they have in common is that they were never handed over to the respective local authorities, leaving them in a constant state of disrepair.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness spoke to the frustrating issue for many Jamaicans on Thursday when he addressed the contract signing for the SPARK project during a ceremony at Jamaica House.

The contract, which was awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company for four packages of works, is set to get underway this month.

Noting that local government roads have been integrated into the SPARK project, the prime minister said “we will have to do some gymnastics to have this accomplished because the legislative structure of our roads is that they’re gazetted according to the department of government that has responsibility”.

“So roads that are under the responsibility of local government should only be financed by local government, especially if we’re doing capital investment and therefore we will have to move some of the roads from the register of local government to the central government’s registry or gazette of roads in order to be in compliance,” he explained.

Holness quipped that “of course we will gladly return them when it (the project) is complete”.

The prime minister said the current scenario suggests that “We need a total reform of how we treat with roads from a legislative perspective because there are some roads that have no administrative authority in charge of them and those are called orphaned roads”.

He described such roads as those that were built in housing schemes, in certain sub-divisions and which were not formally handed over to or accepted by the local authority. “They’re just there for years not being repaired because [the] local government [authority] can’t spend on them otherwise they would be written up by the auditor general,” said Holness.

He told the contract signing ceremony that “We have to use this as an opportunity to relook at the legislative structure that defines the register of roads in Jamaica”.

He noted that the process has started with the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation – through its Geographic Information Systems and Data Management Unit – which has collaborated with the Ministry of Local Government to measure the roads. Holness said the process is close to being completed and will cover all roads including main roads, local government roads, those under the purview of the National Works Agency, farm roads and orphaned roads.

“We will have, at the end of this process, a fairly accurate register, including measurement, and state of repair of all roads. Once we have that, we will start to build out a preventative maintenance schedule. So we’ll be looking at the roads and determining what roads need to be totally upgraded and then once upgraded, what is the maintenance schedule that would keep those roads in good repair over a long period of time. This approach would determine the level of budgetary allocation necessary to keep the roads in a good state of repair,” Holness outlined.