The Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) is to spend $100 million to undertake a revision of the country’s building codes.

This was disclosed by BSJ Director of Standards Julia Bonner Douett during a meeting of the National Disaster Risk Management Council on Tuesday, October 31, at the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, on Hagley Park Road, in Kingston.

She said that, through the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), the BSJ is also receiving funding to update the codes. Bonner Douett stated that a total of 11 codes are being updated, and it includes 10 subject areas.

The BSJ director that the codes are referenced in the Building Act, with the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development responsible for monitoring the implementation of the codes. Bonner Douett informed that the BSJ undertook training on the Jamaica Fire Code with personnel from the University of Technology and the International Code Council (ICC) on Monday, October 30.

“The bureau is also working with PIOJ, Jamaica Social Investment Fund, Jamaica Fire Brigade, Social Development Commission and others to ensure that the codes are properly implemented and are effective,” she said.

“We are training persons, and it is going to be sustainable and repeatable, so everybody who is in that training will have to retrain somebody else and in doing that, the BSJ is ensuring that there is sustainability for our country,” she added.

According to the PIOJ, the National Building Code of Jamaica comprises 11 codes. Of these codes, the World Bank has funded three, namely Jamaica Building Code, Jamaica Small Building Residential Code and the Jamaica Fire Code.

Additionally, the United Nations Development Programme in Jamaica has funded the following three – Jamaica Existing Building Code, Jamaica Mechanical Code and the Jamaica Property Maintenance Code.