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30 bridges left in storage
Acquired under Maybey & Johnson programme four years ago
By INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
THIRTY bridges which were acquired under a programme with the now embattled British bridge building firm Maybey & Johnson have been sitting idly in storage for the past four years, as no funds were identified for them to be erected, the National Works Agency (NWA) revealed yesterday.
This was even as the country was required to honour the agreement for repaying the loans on these bridges.
Patrick Wong (centre) chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), addresses reporters and editors at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange meeting yesterday at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue head office in Kingston. With him are the NWA's director of regional implementation and special projects George Knight (left), and the agency's communications manager Stephen Shaw. (Photo: Michael Gordon)
"We just did an inventory and we found that under the Maybey & Johnson programme the Government, at the time, had acquired 30 bridges but there was no mechanism to install them, so they are in stock for quite some time now," the NWA's Chief Executive Officer Patrick Wong explained, adding that one of these bridges was to be erected across the ford at Cassia Park in St Andrew.
Wong, who was addressing editors and reporters at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange meeting held at the newspaper's head offices in Kingston, said the majority of the bridges were "real" bridges similar to that in place along Dunrobin Avenue in St Andrew, with a few being Bailey bridges.
He said the NWA was now trying to identify funds so that these bridges can be installed.
Wong said the installation of several bridges across the island is a work in progress, however, it is frightening that these bridges have been in storage for such a long time when they are so well-needed.
"We are going to see how best we can identify the funding for these bridges that we have in stock because it suits nobody for these bridges to be there when they could be best used for the purpose for which they were bought," he said.
He added: "We would have had to be paying back loans on these bridges while we wait to have them installed."
When contacted, former minister of transport Robert Pickersgill, under whose portfolio the bridges came into the island, told the Observer he could not comment until he was better informed about why the bridges were still in storage.
"I don't respond to journalists in an ill-advised or hurried fashion and so I need to know exactly what happened," Pickersgill said with a promise to call back.
Mabey & Johnson designs and manufactures prefabricated modular steel bridges, including speedily constructed Bailey bridges, and is the largest supplier of panel bridging systems in the world.
In 2005, the Observer reported that under a £22.8 million loan agreement between the Government of Jamaica and Mabey & Johnson, 40 bridges were to be constructed islandwide. It is not clear how many of these were eventually constructed.
In the meantime, the NWA CEO yesterday said tenders have been received for construction work on the Harbour View bridge, which was destroyed by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Gustav last year, cutting off access from Kingston to Eastern Jamaica for days.
Wong said the tenders were received on September 22 and the evaluation process is now being done.
The tender process, he explained, is expected to last for three months and the construction of the bridge, which will also include a four-lane roadway, should be completed in 12 months.
The new bridge will also be upgraded to four lanes from the roundabout at Harbour View to the first corner heading east.
Additionally, under the RA Murray bridge building programme, the NWA is currently installing 15 new bridges, seven of which have already been completed with the Upper Waterloo Road bridge being among this batch.
"Five more are being worked on and three have not started as yet," Wong said.
NWA Communications Manager Stephen Shaw explained that the islandwide bridge network includes some 720 bridges. Of this number, he said they have identified 129 which needed to be replaced.
"Through the RA Murray programme, the Maybey & Johnson and the Local Bridge Development programme we have been able to do a number of them," he said.
Shaw cited segment three of the North Coast Highway, where, he said, they have been able to rehabilitate 16 bridges between Ocho Rios and Port Antonio as well as construct eight new ones.
On the troubling issue of bridge maintenance, Wong said the NWA has started a survey of the bridge network and once the survey is completed, the bridges will be on a maintenance programme.
"This is something that the fuel cess will be funding," he said.
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
30 bridges left in storage
Acquired under Maybey & Johnson programme four years ago
By INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
THIRTY bridges which were acquired under a programme with the now embattled British bridge building firm Maybey & Johnson have been sitting idly in storage for the past four years, as no funds were identified for them to be erected, the National Works Agency (NWA) revealed yesterday.
This was even as the country was required to honour the agreement for repaying the loans on these bridges.
Patrick Wong (centre) chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), addresses reporters and editors at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange meeting yesterday at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue head office in Kingston. With him are the NWA's director of regional implementation and special projects George Knight (left), and the agency's communications manager Stephen Shaw. (Photo: Michael Gordon) "We just did an inventory and we found that under the Maybey & Johnson programme the Government, at the time, had acquired 30 bridges but there was no mechanism to install them, so they are in stock for quite some time now," the NWA's Chief Executive Officer Patrick Wong explained, adding that one of these bridges was to be erected across the ford at Cassia Park in St Andrew.
Wong, who was addressing editors and reporters at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange meeting held at the newspaper's head offices in Kingston, said the majority of the bridges were "real" bridges similar to that in place along Dunrobin Avenue in St Andrew, with a few being Bailey bridges.
He said the NWA was now trying to identify funds so that these bridges can be installed.
Wong said the installation of several bridges across the island is a work in progress, however, it is frightening that these bridges have been in storage for such a long time when they are so well-needed.
"We are going to see how best we can identify the funding for these bridges that we have in stock because it suits nobody for these bridges to be there when they could be best used for the purpose for which they were bought," he said.
He added: "We would have had to be paying back loans on these bridges while we wait to have them installed."
When contacted, former minister of transport Robert Pickersgill, under whose portfolio the bridges came into the island, told the Observer he could not comment until he was better informed about why the bridges were still in storage.
"I don't respond to journalists in an ill-advised or hurried fashion and so I need to know exactly what happened," Pickersgill said with a promise to call back.
Mabey & Johnson designs and manufactures prefabricated modular steel bridges, including speedily constructed Bailey bridges, and is the largest supplier of panel bridging systems in the world.
In 2005, the Observer reported that under a £22.8 million loan agreement between the Government of Jamaica and Mabey & Johnson, 40 bridges were to be constructed islandwide. It is not clear how many of these were eventually constructed.
In the meantime, the NWA CEO yesterday said tenders have been received for construction work on the Harbour View bridge, which was destroyed by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Gustav last year, cutting off access from Kingston to Eastern Jamaica for days.
Wong said the tenders were received on September 22 and the evaluation process is now being done.
The tender process, he explained, is expected to last for three months and the construction of the bridge, which will also include a four-lane roadway, should be completed in 12 months.
The new bridge will also be upgraded to four lanes from the roundabout at Harbour View to the first corner heading east.
Additionally, under the RA Murray bridge building programme, the NWA is currently installing 15 new bridges, seven of which have already been completed with the Upper Waterloo Road bridge being among this batch.
"Five more are being worked on and three have not started as yet," Wong said.
NWA Communications Manager Stephen Shaw explained that the islandwide bridge network includes some 720 bridges. Of this number, he said they have identified 129 which needed to be replaced.
"Through the RA Murray programme, the Maybey & Johnson and the Local Bridge Development programme we have been able to do a number of them," he said.
Shaw cited segment three of the North Coast Highway, where, he said, they have been able to rehabilitate 16 bridges between Ocho Rios and Port Antonio as well as construct eight new ones.
On the troubling issue of bridge maintenance, Wong said the NWA has started a survey of the bridge network and once the survey is completed, the bridges will be on a maintenance programme.
"This is something that the fuel cess will be funding," he said.
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
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