Construction of Old Harbour Health Centre pushed back

At a virtual meeting of stakeholders October last year it was announced that ground will break in August 2022.

But nothing has happened a month on from that scheduled start.

Glaspole Christie is the component lead in charge of infrastructure on the project, and he tells Old Harbour News that based on the nuances associated with projects of such magnitude, the project is unlikely to get off the ground until sometime in the last quarter of 2023.

“We have conducted several reviews with the ministry and encountered some delays with the completion of the drawings. We have now completed the drawings and as you know part of the submission to commence the procurement process we need the bidding document to be finalized. So we have completed the bill of quantity and the specification and we are hoping to complete all of the bidding documents by the middle to the end of October so we can launch the tender by mid-November,” Christie, a civil engineer specialist, said in an exclusive interview. 

“As for the drawings now, we are going to submit them to the planning agencies for approval, but we have been with them – the fire department and all of the other stakeholders – to get a smooth process for the approvals. They have been giving us feedback and we have been making changes because what we don’t want is to be printing over drawings because it is a lot of sheets. But that is where we are now.”

“In the town hall meeting online, I know that we communicated that we would have broken ground by August,” he added.

One of the concerns raised in that 2021 October meeting was the removal of illegal occupiers on the property earmarked for the health centre to be built. The latest update on the matter is that Member of Parliament Everald Warmington has informed the health ministry technocrats that a new location has been identified to resettle dwellers.

Christie further advised Old Harbour News that the design of the facility is all-inclusive and therefore will integrate sewage and parking, including that of the Lions Club of Old Harbour.

“The parking is part of our development plan and similarly the sewage design will also facilitate the building (Lions Club),” Christie said. “So we’re incorporating all of that, so all of the occupants on the property will be accommodated in our design.”

The Government of Jamaica in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the European Union (EU) has earmarked $489 million to construct the Old Harbour Health Centre. It forms part of a broader development plan by the government to overhaul the health sector in line with international standards.

When complete, the Old Harbour Health Centre will have the capacity to serve in excess of 200 people in a single day and meet the growing demand of the population up to the year 2041.

The construction of the project is slated for completion within two years. However, an end date is dependent on how soon the project will get off the ground.  

“If we start the procurement process in mid-November, it usually takes between six to nine months to award the contract. I would not count December in it because you know already how things flow that time of the year. So we’re looking at nine months before we can actually break ground,” Christie explained.