Opposition Spokesperson on Land and Works, Lothan Cousins, MP, is cautioning the Government against proceeding with the official naming ceremony for the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP), which has been designated the Paul Bogle Highway, and is scheduled for Thursday, July 30, at 11:00 a.m. at the Morant Bay Roundabout in St. Thomas, while active breakaways, landslips and unresolved structural defects remain along sections of the corridor.

Mr. Cousins stressed that while the Opposition fully supports honouring National Hero The Right Excellent Paul Bogle, it cannot support what appears to be a premature celebration when serious engineering concerns remain unresolved. Recent reports of active breakaways, including the structural failure along Wharf Road in Morant Bay, together with landslips and other defects along the highway, raise legitimate questions about the project’s readiness, quality assurance and long-term public safety.

Mr. Cousins noted that Jamaica has successfully delivered major, island-wide road rehabilitation projects before. Under the People’s National Party Administration led by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, the Government completed the Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (NCHIP), stretching from Negril to Port Antonio, through internationally recognised contractors, including E. Pihl & Sons of Denmark. That project demonstrated that large-scale infrastructure can be delivered while maintaining high engineering standards and minimising structural failures.

He argued that accepting responsibility for, or formally commissioning, infrastructure before known defects have been fully addressed risks exposing taxpayers to unnecessary costs and undermining public confidence in the country’s infrastructure programme.

Mr. Cousins is therefore calling on the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and the National Works Agency to provide urgent answers to the following questions:

1. Identification and rectification of defects: Have all active breakaways, including the recent failure along Wharf Road in Morant Bay, as well as landslips and other engineering defects throughout the corridor, been comprehensively identified and documented? What assurances can the Government provide that these defects will be fully rectified before the project is formally commissioned?
2. Defects Liability Period: Has the Defects Liability Period formally commenced? If so, what are its terms, including its duration and the contractor’s obligations to remedy defects?
3. Protection of taxpayers: What measures are being taken to ensure that Jamaican taxpayers will not be required to bear the cost of correcting defects that should properly fall within the contractor’s responsibility under the project contract?

“Public infrastructure must be held to the highest standards of safety, durability and accountability,” Mr. Cousins said. “There should be no rush to commission or celebrate a project while serious structural concerns remain unresolved. The Government must first ensure that all defects are properly addressed, engineering standards have been met, and the public can have full confidence that this critical investment will stand the test of time.”