{"id":13220,"date":"2020-07-02T16:30:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T21:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=13220"},"modified":"2020-07-02T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T18:18:11","slug":"southern-highway-project-wont-stall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/southern-highway-project-wont-stall\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern highway project won&#8217;t stall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HEAD of National Works Agency (NWA), EG Hunter says that with the cut in the budget for the Southern Coastal Highway, the Government is now deep in discussions with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to see how best the project can be restructured with minimum fallout.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The budget of $12.91 billion originally set aside for the highway has been slashed by half in the revised national budget, to help make room for billions in COVID-19 expenditure.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a recent meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), which examined the estimates, Hunter said work would forge ahead on the designs, notwithstanding the delay in some elements of actual construction which were supposed to start in the second quarter of the fiscal year. The NWA is administering the Yallahs to Harbour View leg of the highway, while the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC) is in charge of the second phase, from May Pen in Clarendon to Williamsfield in Manchester<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority of the cost will be in the actual construction, so we are still trying to finalise with the contractor how we reorder the activities. The construction will pick up at a later date. Initially what we had done was to identify parts of the construction activity that can proceed at a certain stage, while we proceed with the design of the roadway itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the options that we now have is to just continue with the total design, and to cherry-pick the elements of the work that can now go to construction. This requires a lot of discussion with the contractor. Our overall desire is to maintain as much momentum as possible, but we are aware of the fiscal constraints and we are depending on the cooperation and support of the contractor to try and reorder the activities as best as we can,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>The NWA chief executive officer pointed out that the project was not in danger of stalling as CHEC was paid an advance of US$6 million last year, which gives the Government some breathing room to honour the payment schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat advanced payment to the contractor is available to the project\u2026the contract gives the Government 72 days to pay for any work that has been done so it is still possible to maintain a decent modicum of activity, and the obligation is managed as you go down the road. So, it is not as simple as saying the budget is cut by 50 per cent therefore you do 50 per cent work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a question of how the activities are staged to fit within what the contract provides for. The truth is that we oft-times make payment on a schedule more pleasing to the contractor, but we still have the provisions of the contract to rely on in case we have fiscal challenges,\u201d he outlined.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, managing director of NROCC, Ivan Anderson explained that work has started on approximately 11 kilometres out of 28 kilometres of roadway on the second phase of the highway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now we have not proposed any cuts in the contractor\u2019s pace of work, so we continue with the original pace of work while we discuss with the contractor what we can do in relation to the cuts in the budget,\u201d he explained, noting that with the cut in the overall budget for the project, spending on the second leg has been reduced from $4.8 billion to $2.4 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamaicaobserver.com\/news\/southern-highway-project-won-t-stall-government-says-it-s-now-in-negotiations-with-chec-for-restructuring_196865?profile=1373\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Image:\u00a0 Free-Photos (Pixabay)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HEAD of National Works Agency (NWA), EG Hunter says that with the cut in the budget for the Southern Coastal Highway, the Government is now deep in discussions with China&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":13227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112],"tags":[190,124],"class_list":["post-13220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsdevelopments","tag-construction","tag-jamaica"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Interstate-Night-Street-City-Architecture-Traffic-Free-Photos-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C649&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-3re","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21554,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/construction-of-port-antonio-bypass-approved\/","url_meta":{"origin":13220,"position":0},"title":"Construction Of Port Antonio Bypass Approved","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"April 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica \u00a0 The Government has approved the construction of the Port Antonio Bypass in Portland as part of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project. \u201cAs currently conceptualised, the project will see the construction of 17 kilometres of four lanes of arterial road around Port Antonio, and two standard shoulders,\u201d the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7023,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/level-the-playing-field-for-local-contractors\/","url_meta":{"origin":13220,"position":1},"title":"Level the playing field for local contractors","author":"Michele Marius","date":"October 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Concerns abound regarding the Government of Jamaica's continued dealings with Chinese company, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), as dozens of road and building projects valued at billions of dollars are doled out and local contractors sidelined. Coupled with the recent ramblings by Jamaican workers, it seems that this company may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News\/Developments&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35262,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/five-international-companies-pre-qualified-for-spark-programme-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":13220,"position":2},"title":"Five international companies pre-qualified for SPARK programme","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"July 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica The government has announced that five companies have been shortlisted to bid on the multi-billion-dollar road rehabilitation programme, known as SPARK. Minister with responsibility for Works, Robert Morgan, says the National Works Agency recently completed the pre-qualification stage of the International Competitive Bidding process. Minister Morgan says eight companies,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-dariabuntaria-2678104-scaled-e1721583477683.jpg?fit=1024%2C679&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-dariabuntaria-2678104-scaled-e1721583477683.jpg?fit=1024%2C679&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-dariabuntaria-2678104-scaled-e1721583477683.jpg?fit=1024%2C679&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-dariabuntaria-2678104-scaled-e1721583477683.jpg?fit=1024%2C679&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35011,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/five-international-companies-pre-qualified-for-spark-programme\/","url_meta":{"origin":13220,"position":3},"title":"Five international companies pre-qualified for SPARK programme","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"July 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica The government has announced that five companies have been shortlisted to bid on the multi-billion-dollar road rehabilitation programme, known as SPARK. Minister with responsibility for Works, Robert Morgan, says the National Works Agency recently completed the pre-qualification stage of the International Competitive Bidding process. Minister Morgan says eight companies,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-yury-kim-181374-585419-scaled-e1720051850498.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-yury-kim-181374-585419-scaled-e1720051850498.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-yury-kim-181374-585419-scaled-e1720051850498.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/pexels-yury-kim-181374-585419-scaled-e1720051850498.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25994,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/integrity-commission-wants-registry-that-will-expose-negligent-contractors\/","url_meta":{"origin":13220,"position":4},"title":"Integrity Commission wants registry that will expose negligent contractors","author":"Michele Marius","date":"January 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica THE Integrity Commission (IC) is urging the Government to implement a public contract management system or registry that will essentially put contractors who fall down on their obligations on blast. The recommendation comes against the background of the findings of a special investigation which the commission conducted in January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Corruption-Pix4Free.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Corruption-Pix4Free.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Corruption-Pix4Free.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Corruption-Pix4Free.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26659,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/pm-holness-at-centre-of-possible-conflict-of-interest-probe\/","url_meta":{"origin":13220,"position":5},"title":"PM Holness at centre of possible conflict of interest probe","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"March 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness has been cited for a possible conflict of interest in the awarding of Government contracts totalling millions of dollars to an entity - Westcon Construction Limited - and has been referred to the Director of Corruption Prosecution at the Integrity Commission for possible further action.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Contract-agreement-signature-Pixabay-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Contract-agreement-signature-Pixabay-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Contract-agreement-signature-Pixabay-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Contract-agreement-signature-Pixabay-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13220"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13228,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13220\/revisions\/13228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}