THE National Works Agency (NWA) has put a mechanism in place to ensure developers are held accountable for any damage they may cause to main roads during their developments.

Developers damaging main thoroughfares to lay pipes or do other works, then leaving the road in disrepair, has been a continuous problem for Jamaicans, but according to communications and customer service manager at the NWA Stephen Shaw, the entity is adamant that it will put a stop to this practice.

“Where we have gone at the NWA [is that] where it is that developers are looking to touch main roads in this kind of way, we are insisting that they actually deposit with us money where if it is that something goes wrong then that situation will be addressed,” said Shaw as he responded to questions at a recent Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

Shaw noted that this approach was used recently when there was a similar problem with a developer on Liguanea Avenue in St Andrew.

“We actually had the developer deposit monies, and he had to remedy the problem there, because we refused to hand over one cent before we were satisfied. And our soil investigation team, our senior geologist went in, looked at it and we did all the technical work. It is fair to say that the road has now been property reinstated. So we have not seen a repeat of what transpired in that space and that is really the blueprint going forward, where our roads are concerned,” added Shaw.

In the meantime, minister with responsibility for works Robert Morgan lamented that when private developers dig up the roads the NWA is normally blamed for this, when, in many instances, this is an issue that should be addressed by the municipal corporations.

“There’s a contractor that dug out the middle of the road near Stella Marris [Preparatory School] on Shortwood Road in St Andrew and people were saying NWA — it’s not us. The development orders are governed by the municipal corporations.

“They are the ones who give building and planning approval for these entities, and I think we need to start holding our municipal corporations accountable for some of these things. Yes…NWA has a role and we need to fulfil our role, but there are many things that you guys are blaming us for that has nothing to do with us,” said Morgan.

He told Observer editors and reporters that this situation again highlights the issue of how the various types of thoroughfares — such as main, private, parochial and farm roads — should be managed and by what authority.

Morgan noted that while there have been calls to put every road under one umbrella and Prime Minister Andrew Holness has indicated that a singe road authority is being considered, there has to be consultations before that can be done.

The Cabinet minister said in consultation with many councillors so far, they have expressed concern that there is even a contemplation that the central government is going to take away their control of parochial roads.

“I personally agree that the Government should look into taking over more of these roads, which is why we have gazetted a lot of the SPARK (Shared Prosperity Through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network Programme) roads to come on the NWA where NWA will have authority over these SPARK roads.

“But local government has a role, [and] one of the major roles of local government is parochial roads,” added Morgan.