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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, including two construction firms from Jamaica, responded to the bid.

“So far, five international companies have been successful at the pre-qualification stage, and this week, we will be sending out bid proposals to those five pre-qualified enterprise construction companies. These proposals will be for them to bid on the four packages that are across the island. And we expect those bid proposals to be returned by mid August and then we will seek approval from the Public Procurement Commission as well as Cabinet to award contracts by the end of September this year,” he disclosed while speaking during Wednesday’s post Cabinet press briefing.

The five successful bidders are Sinohydro Corporation, China Harbour Engineering Company, Municipal Enterprises of Canada, the UK’s Lagan Aviation and Infrastructure and VINCI Construction Grands Projects out of France.

The Works Minister said, though it is expected that an international company will be the successful bidder, a local company must be involved in the implementation, in keeping with the project arrangement.

Minister Morgan said the contracts are for two years, with an additional year for defects liabilities as well as corrective works in the event of challenges with the completed works.

He added that a priority list of roads has been developed in several constituencies, based on the current consultations.

So far, there have been 24 meetings across 21 constituencies to identify the thoroughfares that are in need of attention.

Mr. Morgan said the target roads are being assessed.

“We have also sent a list to the National Water Commission to determine the needs and status of waterlines on these roads and preliminary costs will be shared with the CDF (Constituency Development Fund) to determine the final priority list per constituency for the initial $1 million allocation.

“So it is split into two for the first year – $150 million for members of Parliament and constituencies based on the consultation, which is about $10 billion and then another $10 billion in the first year for NWA roads, roads that are main roads but are not community roads. And in that vein, the NWA has selected 60 main roads for implementation in this project and these roads will pass through every constituency in keeping with the policy mandate of the SPARK project,” he outlined.

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