Christiana's bypass to Heaven

Lambert Brown, Contributor

Much controversy now surrounds what some people are describing as the 'Christiana bypass to Heaven'. Several government ministers, in addition to public servants, have had to be spending valuable time explaining the relative high cost of what Audley Shaw calls a development road in his North East Manchester constituency. There can be no doubt that the town of Christiana will benefit from such a new road. The congestion in the small hillside town, especially on the busy shopping days, could be eased, allowing faster transit time through the town.

No one in his right mind would oppose such a road built at a reasonable cost. What is fuelling the controversy is the mounting distrust among the people of the Government and its actions. This distrust is reinforced even more as we have different reasons being given for the $800-million price tag for two lanes of a single kilometre of road. This price, we are told, does not include the cost of land already purchased or to be purchased to complete this expensive project. Naturally, we should expect the cost to run higher. It is rare in Jamaica that major road projects are ever completed on time and within budget.

unjustifiable spend

That this road will have two bridges and is being constructed through what is classified as 'virgin territory' is not enough to justify what appears to be an exorbitant endeavour. Jamaica has built several other roads with multiple bridges and through virgin territory for much less than $800 million-plus per kilometre. In July 2006, one newspaper reported in an article titled 'Less road, more cost' that the 33-kilometre stretch of road from Mandela Highway to Sandy Bay in Clarendon cost, on average, $390 million per kilometre. This was a road through virgin territory, and with several bridges and overpasses. In addition, there were issues of extortion requiring a military intervention as part of that cost. The uncompleted Christiana two-lane road is, therefore, more than twice as expensive as the completed four lanes of Highway 2000.

The economic benefits to our nation from the Highway 2000 will always be far more valuable than the Christiana bypass ever will be. This is why the economic arguments being advanced by government officials in defence of this project remain unconvincing.

The seven-kilometre Portmore leg of Highway 2000 was completed in 2006. It is six lanes on that roadway. That road includes four overpasses, over which it was estimated that 28,000 vehicles would travel daily. One of the bridges takes six lanes of traffic and required "the erection of 26 piles, driven 40 metres deep to secure" it. This bridge goes over water connecting Portmore to Kingston. That road was built not only in virgin territory but needed the transporting of 2.2 million tons of marl to buffer the land. "It was like building in porridge" was how one official involved with the construction expert described the situation.

comparison with toll road

The final cost of this seven kilometres of six lanes, plus extensive repairs of an additional 6.5 kilometres of Dyke Road, linking Portmore to the Mandela Highway, cost $6.5 billion, or less than a billion dollars per kilometre of six lanes of roadway. Compared with the cost of what was an expensive but well-built Portmore toll road, the Christiana road, indeed, appears to be an expensive bypass to Heaven.

The Jamaican people are deserving of accounting for every penny spent on this and all other roads in our country. The road to development, indeed, begins with the development of roads, but the precipice of underdevelopment is dug deeper with every cent wasted in corruption, mismanagement or inefficiencies on works projects. For too long our people have accepted shoddy work, sweet talk and downright corruption as just return for our hard-earned taxes which Government extracts from us at will. It is time for us to say enough is enough! We must demand better management and accounting from our 'servants' elected and employed.

Mr Shaw is notorious for his penchant to expose any excess spending as scandals. It is, therefore, not surprising that with this seeming excessive expenditure right under his nose in Christiana, so many people are holding the mirror to his face. The Jamaican people want to know if there is a scandal in the making on this North East Manchester road. Mr Shaw and his Government will need much more than a media tour to erase the suspicion among the populace about the real cost of the bypass.

wise move by nwa

People want to make sure that the town of Christiana gets its development, but devoid of the corruption and waste ever so prevalent in our system of government-connected contracts. Only exoneration by way of investigation from the meticulous Office of the Contractor General (OCG) will be sufficient to silence the din over this project. It is, therefore, a wise move on the part of the National Works Agency to fully cooperate with the OCG.

Recently, the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament heard that the Bogue Road in Montego Bay had a massive overrun of $700 million. Many hospitals, schools and communities could have benefited from this overexpenditure. Real and sustainable jobs could have been created, thus reducing poverty if this money was spent with prudence. These are missed opportunities for progress because we are prepared to tolerate mismanagement or downright corruption. How can we justify spending $15 million to put railway tracks on the Bogue Road as reported to the parliamentary oversight committee two weeks ago? Are these tracks made of gold?

It should be clear to all by now that only the fullest transparency on all government projects will restore the trust so essential if our country is to meet the objective of becoming a developed country where we can deliver prosperity to our citizens. Corruption was wrong in the past; it must remain wrong today and in the future. Nearly 50 years after Independence, we deserve no less. All of us who truly love Jamaica must continue to speak out and expose all acts of 'ginnalship' which may influence government practices.

Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers' Union and may be contacted at labpoyh@yahoo.com.