MINISTER with responsibility for works Robert Morgan has insisted that the Government will keep its commitment to rehabilitate 10 roads in each constituency under the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) programme.

“As SPARK 1 ends… around the first quarter of the next financial year, we have to do SPARK 2 because we promised 10 roads per constituency,” Morgan told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

“We made a commitment for 10 roads, the prime minister is very strong on it and we said in our manifesto that we are going to have SPARK 2 which is going to fix what we did not fix under SPARK 1,” Morgan added.

He was responding to reports out of Wednesday’s sitting of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), that the money allocated for the SPARK programme would not be enough to do 10 roads in each constituency as initially announced.

Chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA) EG Hunter told the committee, “At the time of the community consultations when the 10 roads were identified, nobody knew at that point in time what the cost for any of the roads [would be]. So notwithstanding the fact that 10 roads were identified the number of roads that can be undertaken based on the budget depends on the cost of each road,” said Hunter.

“To the extent that the cost of the first or second road chosen are substantial in terms of their cost, it’s the extent to which limited funds remain from the budget to undertake the other roads” Hunter added as he pointed out that more than 250 of the 630 roads initially identified would not be touched.

But in his interview with the Observer Morgan explained that based on changes the $45-billion programme — which has been described as the most ambitious roadwork plan ever embarked on in Jamaica — more money will have to be allocated under SPARK 2.

According to Morgan, due to unforeseen circumstances it has become necessary to increase the allocation which was always the plan as the Government has never pretended that one programme, however large, could fix every road in Jamaica at once.

“There are more roads that need new water pipes than we thought initially and there were also some roads that needed significantly more money after the initial costing was done,” Morgan explained.

He pointed to Everest Drive in Kingston Eastern, which was where SPARK was launched, and noted that, “You went in there planning to spend $70 million and ended up spending $100 million because you now have to build more retaining walls, you have to build more drainage”.

Morgan added, “The Government has made a decision to build the roads properly …we are not taking a short cut, we’re focused on quality over quantity.

“The quantity is going to come under SPARK 2 to finish what we have and add some more. But we have made a policy decision that these roads must last 10 to 15 years.

“If you don’t do them properly they are not going to last 10 to five years, so the tradition of just asphalting the road and then two years later you see the road start swelling up and water pipes bursting and National Water Commission (NWC) has to be digging up the road [will be a thing of the past],” Morgan added.

He told the Observer that the Dr Andrew Holness-led Administration has learnt lessons from the beginning of the programme.

“We have learnt lessons from Richings Avenue, we have learnt lessons from Liguanea Avenue,” said Morgan as he noted that in one instance a section of a road which had been repaired under SPARK was dug up by the NWC four months later.

“As we move the programme forward we keep learning lessons and we keep having to change because Jamaica has never built 400 roads under any programme. So this is new, it is new for the NWA, it is new for China Harbour Engineering Company who is the main contractor, it is new for the subcontractors, it is new for the NWC,” said Morgan.

He was quick to point out that SPARK 2 will not necessarily start in the first quarter of next year.

“We have started planning for SPARK 2. I have given instructions to the NWA to start preparing for SPARK 2 and this is a high policy decision. This is a decision that was made in our manifesto for the last general election that we’re going to do part two”.

Under the current iteration of the programme, Morgan said most constituencies will get between five and eight roads.

He pointed out that his Clarendon North Central constituency will see only five roads done under SPARK 1 in contrast to St James North Western where the Member of Parliament Dr Horace Chang will have all 10 roads done due to the small size of his constituency, while Members of Parliament in Portmore will also see a majority of their roads completed.