Dear Editor,
I note the Caymanas Country Club Estate house owners fuming at the "re-alignment" of the Highway 2000 through their backyards because it had to avoid the Ferry Police Station, Hydel School and NWC pipelines. Is this the quality of engineering to be expected from China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC)?
These pipelines and places have been there for decades; Ferry from the horse and buggy days. No wonder they selected Goat Islands for a port when an engineering study by a US- based group indicated that it was as much as US$200M more expensive than nearby Macarry Bay to the west, and are supposed to dam up the Bog Walk Gorge when Jamaican engineers know better.
An engineering team of veteran Jamaican engineers of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, at the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs Public Information Forum ‘Highway 2000: A Critical Review and Implications’ on September 1, 2001 recommended that it join the south coast leg to the west of Spanish Town. They knew where things were. I suspect that the engineers who realigned the Highway 2000 after realising their mistake — Oops! We didn't see the police station, or the NWC pumping station, or the NWC pipeline, or the two housing schemes, or the school.
Is it a matter of incompetence? I don't know. Maybe someone should have a go to see what a magistrate thinks.
Howard Chin, PE
hmc14@cwjamaica.com
I note the Caymanas Country Club Estate house owners fuming at the "re-alignment" of the Highway 2000 through their backyards because it had to avoid the Ferry Police Station, Hydel School and NWC pipelines. Is this the quality of engineering to be expected from China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC)?
These pipelines and places have been there for decades; Ferry from the horse and buggy days. No wonder they selected Goat Islands for a port when an engineering study by a US- based group indicated that it was as much as US$200M more expensive than nearby Macarry Bay to the west, and are supposed to dam up the Bog Walk Gorge when Jamaican engineers know better.
An engineering team of veteran Jamaican engineers of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, at the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs Public Information Forum ‘Highway 2000: A Critical Review and Implications’ on September 1, 2001 recommended that it join the south coast leg to the west of Spanish Town. They knew where things were. I suspect that the engineers who realigned the Highway 2000 after realising their mistake — Oops! We didn't see the police station, or the NWC pumping station, or the NWC pipeline, or the two housing schemes, or the school.
Is it a matter of incompetence? I don't know. Maybe someone should have a go to see what a magistrate thinks.
Howard Chin, PE
hmc14@cwjamaica.com