THE idea of repairing Jamaica’s busiest roads at night may sound appealing to commuters in the Corporate Area, but the Government says it comes with a heavy price tag the country must carefully consider.

As traffic congestion continues to frustrate motorists in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, the Government has pushed back against growing calls for large-scale night-time road construction, warning that the financial and logistical costs could outweigh the benefits.

Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Press Club on Friday, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development with responsibility for works, Robert Morgan said the suggestion to shift roadworks to overnight hours ignores the realities of how Jamaica’s economy and construction sector operate.

“If you mean fix the road at night then you’re going to double the cost of the road. So you have to make a decision, because there’s no free riding in economics. So if you’re going to fix roads at night you’re going to have to hire security, because people are not going to go on the road at night to fix roads without being protected,” he said.

Beyond security, Morgan said the entire supply chain that supports road construction would also have to operate outside normal hours, driving up costs across the board.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development with responsibility for works, Robert Morgan, speaking during a Jamaica Observer Press Club on Friday. (Karl Mclarty)

“The plants are gonna have to start opening at night, which means that there’s an increased cost to the owner of the asphalt plant, it’s an increased cost to the owner of the quarry, the truckers are now going to have to be paid overtime. So, we have to remember that your economy is not built for 24 hours — your economy is built pretty much for nine to five. You have people who work at BPOs and other manufacturing [industries] but, by and large, our road construction ecosystem is dependent on the wider economic ecosystem,” he said.

Morgan noted that the Government has, in limited cases, carried out night-time road work when circumstances demanded it, noting that last year, night operations were used for emergency patching on critical routes where disruption during the day was not an option.

However, he cautioned that expanding night work across the island would force difficult trade-offs, including the possibility of repairing fewer roads overall due to higher costs.

“But the reality of it is that unless you’re willing to find more money, much more money to do the work… then at the end of the day when I say, ‘I want to fix 10 roads but I’m going to do them at nights,’ I may only be able to fix five — and there are some communities where people [workers] are not going in there to fix the road,” Morgan said.

The debate over night-time construction was raised alongside wider discussions around the road expansion Special Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Programme, under which several of Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine’s most heavily trafficked corridors are slated for rehabilitation and widening.

Among them are Arthur Wint Drive, Tom Redcam Drive, Lady Musgrave Road, East King’s House Road and Washington Boulevard — routes that collectively form part of the main arterial network serving the Corporate Area.

Morgan said these projects fall within a single, large-scale investment envelope valued at approximately $5 billion, but warned that attempting to execute them simultaneously would grind traffic across the capital to a halt. He stressed that traffic management, not speed of construction, is the primary factor shaping how the CAPEX programme is being rolled out.

“So when Wellington [Drive], Seymour [Avenue], sections of Seaview and Liguanea Avenue, were being fixed, it almost locked down the city. Now, imagine if we started fixing Lady Musgrave, Arthur Wint, East King’s House Road at the same time?” asked Morgan.

“We have to sequence the development. So while we want to fix all the roads at the same time, we’re going to have to do a new entrance to Mandela Highway. What’s going to happen when we start that? We’re also going to have to replace the bridge on [Washington] Boulevard. What’s going to happen when we start that? So all of these things are going through the process of the Public Investment Management Secretariat, and over the next three to four years they’re gonna be sequenced,” he further explained.