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Roads & Works
The Roads & Works issues building permits for all types of
structures, both residential and commercial. We also conducts
inspections and enforce building regulations. Please
click here for Building Services Procedures.
The Saint James Parish Council has the
exclusive care, management and control of all parochial
roads in the parish.
| IMPORTANT:
The Parish Council is NOT responsible for the
maintenance of main highways or primary roads.
In Montego Bay, some of these roads include:
Queen’s Drive,
Sunset Avenue, St.
James Street,Creek
Street, Humber
Avenue, Cottage
Road,
Barnett Street, Howard
Cooke Boulevard and Alice
Eldermire Drive. These facilities
are the responsibility of the National
Works Agency. Please
click here for a list of NWA Roads.
If a road you are concerned about is not
listed here, it is a parochial road. |
Funding
The financing and execution of contracts for
road construction is directed under the Parochial Revenue Fund.
Road construction may also be executed under the Social and
Economic Support Programme, the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, or any
other agency with capital available for the development of roads.
The method of allocation for road repairs
varies from parish to parish (see below).
To maintain 1 km of road costs $3.1 million.
The Parish of St. James has 1200 km.
The Roads & Works department receives about $1.8 million
per month to maintain roads. Top
priority roads are identified by each Councillor, who receives an
allocation of $350,000 every six months for this purpose.
Twenty percent of the money allocated to roads
under the Parochial Revenue Fund is held back for emergency
purposes. Other funding
is derived from the Vehicles and Licenses fees.
One third of the monies collected go to the Ministry of
Finance for general revenue, while the rest is remitted to the
Ministry of Local Government. This
two thirds is then sent out to all the Parish Councils based on the
number of kilometers of roads in each parish.
For more details on the road budget, please see the recurrent
budget.
Road
Repair Schedule
After consulting with residents in their
Division, Councilors recommend a list of roads to be repaired in
their Divisions over their term of office.
The Roads & Works Department assesses the requirements
and cost. Priorities are
determined on an ongoing basis through discussions involving Roads
and Works Department staff, the MLGCD, individual Council members
and the Infrastructure Development and Maintenance Committee and
depend in large part on the amount of money allocated by the MLGCD.
After Ministry approval, a contractor is
selected for each project. Contractors
are selected from a registered list of approved contractors.
If the project value is over $500,000, the project is put out
to tender. If the
project value is over $4 million, the project is referred to the
National Contracts Commission and it administers the tender process.
Projects over $100,000
are to be posted on the SJPC website (coming soon).
Guidelines for awarding contracts are set by
the National
Contracts Commission. The
Infrastructure Development and Maintenance Committee approves all
proposed contracts.
Who has responsibility for subdivision
roads?
The St. James Parish Council accepts new
subdivision roads from developers only
after the roads have passed certain standards.
All developers, including the government, are legally
responsible to bring their roads up to these standards.
In order to accept new roads the Parish Council conducts an
inspection; if the Council is not satisfied, we will not take it
over. Unfortunately, in
the past, it has happened that developers did not perform their
obligations and were allowed to issue title before their roads were
up to scratch. This is
an island-wide problem, and has resulted in no-one taking
responsibility for certain roads.
The Parish Council is
responsible for cleaning and maintaining drains and gullies which
surround parochial roads, in addition to various other gullies.
We are not
responsible for gullies surrounding main highways or primary roads.
Please see Parochial Roads above for further information.
| IMPORTANT:
The Parish Council is NOT responsible for the
cleanliness and maintenance of major
gullies. In
Montego Bay, this includes both the South
and North Gullies. These
facilities are the responsibility of the National
Works Agency. |
The Department is responsible for minor water
supplies operated in smaller settlements and rural areas where there
is no piped water supply. Activities
include supervision and maintenance of minor water supplies
throughout the parish. Facilities
consist of 7 entombment springs and associated standpipe systems, 6
catchment tanks, 10 wayside tanks, and a number of small
tributaries. Tanks are
served by the parish water truck.
| IMPORTANT:
Major water supply, such as pipelines,
reservoirs and dams are the responsibility of the National
Water Commission. |
The Department is responsible for the proper maintenance of all
public sanitary conveniences, abattoirs, cemeteries, and of all
parks, median strips and green verges under the responsibility of
the Parish Council. For
more information on public conveniences, abattoirs & cemeteries,
please see the Commercial
Services Unit.
It is the responsibility of the Roads &
Works Department to ensure that all traffic signs and lights are
properly maintained and functional for all parochial roads, and that
all markings and directional signs are in place.
Another government agency with traffic management
responsibility is the Transport
Authority.
If you don't see what you're looking for, search
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