Montego Bay Perimeter Road project paused

ST JAMES, Jamaica — Work has been paused on the Montego Bay Perimeter Road as the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), reviews its safety procedures following last Thursday’s on-the-job death of engineer Clifton James who was part of the work crew. James was crushed by a truck while he was measuring a section of the road. READ: Engineer dies after being crushed by truck while working on MoBay bypass "They are supposed to report back to NROCC [National Road Operating and Construction Company, the executing agency for the project] as to what those safety procedures are and how they are going to improve safety," Minister with responsibility for Works in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development (MEGID), Robert Morgan told reporters Wednesday during a tour of projects in St James.

"We understand that there have been personnel changes by China Harbour. I cannot speak about that; that is a matter for them. The minister explained that once the report is submitted, a determination will be made on when work can resume.

He is uncertain whether the pause will lead to delays to the planned end of September opening of the Montego Bay bypass leg of the project. "It may or may not, we are very advanced with the perimeter road. As you can see we have put on a lot of the base course, there are still some things like the drains on the bridge that need to be put on, the barriers need to be put on but we are pretty much 90 per cent there," Morgan said.

"The rest of what needs to be done is not heavy infrastructure work, it's merely peripheral works so we are hoping it does not impact the opening,” he added. The minister assured that an update will be provided to the public if the project’s completion date has to be pushed back. "We are not really afraid to tell people what the reality is because we believe by just being open and transparent people will appreciate what we are doing," he said.

In the wake of the fatality on the project site, Morgan said his ministry and its agencies will review their systems and policies. "I've also instructed the National Works Agency (NWA) to review the safety procedures on every single site, whether it be a SPARK site, whether it be a patching site,…