Despite a near 100 per cent overrun and two-year delay in completion of the Junction roadworks in St Mary, “billions of dollars more” will be needed to rehabilitate a discrete gutted stretch of the key corridor linking Kingston to the northeastern parish.
That revelation comes as crewmen scrambled since Thursday to meet a new end-of-March deadline to finish paving the thoroughfare from Agualta Vale to Broadgate, which has been a dustbowl of marl and backhoes, causing gridlock and the sputtering of the parish’s economy.
The major road overhaul has been undertaken by Surrey Paving, which is expected to wrap up asphaltic works and the construction of retaining toe walls to brace against the Broadgate slopes.
The budget will round out at $1.1 billion, almost double the $600 million initially budgeted for the project.
However, the roadway running from Broadgate to Tom’s River is a canvas of carnage – described by National Works Agency (NWA) Chief Executive Officer E.G. Hunter as a badly worn driving surface with numerous breakaways. That, though, falls under a separate contract.
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