Gov’t revs up Chambers Pen transformation project
McKenzie hoping to complete 80% of works by mid 2023
Published:Friday | February 24, 2023 | 12:07 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The community of Chambers Pen in Hanover is to benefit from a $89-million road rehabilitation programme.
The work on the roads is scheduled to start within two weeks with a completion timeline of nine months.
Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond McKenzie signed the contract for the road works at a ceremony in Chambers Pen last while, while Phillip Foote signed on behalf of contractors D.R. Foote Construction Company.
Chambers Pen is a farming community located nine kilometres east of Lucea, the Hanover parish capital. It has an estimated population of 11,000 residents. It is in proximity to districts such as Dundee Pen, Eaton, Harvey River, and McLaren Gate.
In June 2021, the rural Hanover district was selected as the pilot project for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development’s Rural Development Programme.
The road rehabilitation and improvement project forms part of the multimillion-dollar programme, which also includes a rural electrification component, an improved water distribution project, and the renovation of the primary school, among other initiatives.
At the 2021 launch of the programme, McKenzie announced that approximately $300 million would be spent to improve the social and physical conditions of the community.
In an interview with The Gleaner following the latest contract signing last week, McKenzie said that about a third of the overall project has been completed.
“I would say that the work is about 30 per cent complete … . The school, the electrical wiring, the distribution of the [water] tanks, we have already put in the water distribution lines. There are some more connections to be made, with the roads and other things that are going to come. Once that gets started, it will get us, hopefully, by the middle of the year, to about 80 per cent,” said McKenzie.
“I am feeling very good about the progress of the work. ... The Jamaica Social Investment Fund that has come in and has completed their work, the Jamaica Public Service now is to come to put in street lights in certain selected areas, Rural Water [Supply Limited] has been working, the Social Development Commission has been on the ground, and now the real construction will start, which includes repairs to the bridges, the putting in of the curb walls, sidewalks and rehabilitation of the roads,” added McKenzie.