Montego Bay Perimeter Road project paused

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. But they have made changes in terms of personnel, in terms of health and safety and we have a zero tolerance approach towards these sort of things," he added. 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…