Portmore Boycott...

[niceniss]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
I even saw where the Minister of Transport say they had plenty, plenty small Portmore community meetings, newspaper items on the Portmore toll - the ppl knew about it..


[/ QUOTE ]

which means what...?

[RichD]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]



can you provide a link to the info on the terms of the agreemet as you stipulate?

[/ QUOTE ]

plenty sites on it [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
I even saw where the Minister of Transport say they had plenty, plenty small Portmore community meetings, newspaper items on the Portmore toll - the ppl knew about it..
RichD u too bad! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

imnot asking about the toll discussion


what im asking about is the speculation that part of the agreement is that the govt not maintain the alternante roads or develop any competing routes/transportation modes.

[mangoskin]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

let me expand, why they wait until it's a done deal to protest & demonstrate?

I do feel bad for them because gas prices will be going up too [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[RichD]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]

why is there a need to see "terms of agreement" (btw who are the agreeing parties? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]) when any sane person can see that Portmore is a DORM community with most of the facilities available are outside of Portmore?

[/ QUOTE ]

the agreement refered to is between the operators of the highway and the government of Jamaica who license them to operatein jamaica.

so aside from hospital (which is a problem throughout jamaica) which facilities are not available in portmore and are only accessible by traveling to kingston?

[niceniss]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

Courts, schools, Govt offices, Jobs... do u need me to go on?

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
can you provide a link to the info on the terms of the agreemet as you stipulate?

[/ QUOTE ]

Okay he is one of the first piece of info that I ever posted. Don't just skim through read and digest.

Note the date.
Note the total price tag.
Note the proposed minimum toll for Portmore.
Note the concerns, especially about concessions and the fact that the GOJ was handing over perfectly good bypasses to a foreign, private concern. Roads that we had borrowed money to build (the Kuwaiti Oil fund).

Question where is Kingsley Thomas now?

[ QUOTE ]
Beneath Highway 2000's surface

Kingsley Thomas addresses claims of hidden costs to taxpayers and project financing

By Byron Buckley Senior political reporter
Sunday, November 10, 2002


Although nearly 80 per cent of the public - according to a government-commissioned survey - holds a favourable view of the administration's ambitious Highway 2000 project, a significant proportion believes the project will not be completed on time and will cost more than the US$390-million price tag.

In addition, the local chapter of Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog, claims there are hidden costs to taxpayers beneath the glitter of the project's offer of drastic reduction in travel times, pothole-free roadway, easier cross-island commerce and improved potential for eco-tourism.
But these charges are countered by Kingsley Thomas, conceptualiser of the Highway 2000 project, as well as UBS Warburg, the international investment house that advised the administration on the project.

The first phase of the work consists of a minimum four-lane motorway, 74 kilometres in length from Kingston to Williamsfield in Manchester and a new six-lane bridge linking the Corporate Area with Portmore, St Catherine. Bouygues, the French construction conglomerate, won the bid two years ago to develop phase one of Highway 2000.
Two other phases - Bushy Park to Ocho Rios and Williamsfield to Montego Bay, an additional 152 kilometres - have not yet gone to tender.
However, a survey conducted by the Stone Polling Organisation on behalf of the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) has found that 15.3 per cent of persons surveyed expect the project to be affected by delays and cost overruns. Only a third of the respondents believe the project will be completed on time and within budget.

It is a concern shared by Peter McConnell, operator of Worthy Park Estates and someone who appreciates the positive impact that Highway 2000 can have on his food distribution business. McConnell, and many other Jamaicans, speak with the benefit of experience.
"Every construction project that has taken place in Jamaica, particularly to do with roads, has never met the budget, and rarely completed on time," he told the French magazine, Paris Match, two years ago.
But Thomas emphasises that unlike other road projects undertaken in the country, the Highway 2000 implementation agreement contains myriad penalties and precautions against breaches by the French developer. These, he says, will serve to protect the interest of taxpayers and local investors in the project.
One of the potential costs to which Transparency International alludes is the possibility of the Government - taxpayers by extension - footing the cost of completing the highway if the French developer defaults.

"The taxpayers of this country could end up bearing the cost of this project if the developer chooses to abandon it for whatever reason," says Beth Aub, general-secretary of Transparency's local chapter, citing a clause in the highway agreement between the Government and Bouygues.
Indeed, it has happened elsewhere. In Mexico, for instance, the Government had to assume the debts of a toll road developer who went bust.
Thomas says the Jamaica agreement provides, in the case of default, for the Government to take over the project and appoint a new developer where necessary, which, would, of necessity, delay the implementation of the project.
Under a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOT) financing arrangement, Bouygues is required to provide about 73 per cent or US$290 million of the cost of phase one of the project through a combination of loan and equity funds. Government will contribute nearly 27 per cent or some US$108 million

The administration, through the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), a special purpose firm, has already raised US$130 million through a 30-year bond issue from which it will on-lend to TransJamaican Highway Limited, a fully-owned subsidiary of Bouygues.
The agency will lend TransJamaican Highway funds in local currency at five per cent interest rate and in US dollar denominated amounts at the international market rate, plus four per cent per annum.
Loan disbursement will commence on a monthly basis on the receipt of invoices of work completed by the developer, TransJamaican Highway, after it has expended US$70.5 million on construction works.
"This means that they cover all construction expenditure from the start of construction out of the financing which they are providing through loan and equity until these resources are exhausted," notes Thomas, who is the executive chairman of NROCC.

The government guarantee of the bonds for on-lending to TransJamaican Highway bothers Aub.
"By guaranteeing the bonds, Government has made taxpayers liable for the cost of what is, essentially, a private sector project," she notes.
Aub also questions the propriety of Government financing the bonds from pension funds for what she considers a risky project.
Adam Nicolopoulos, an international investment banker, counters with the argument that Jamaica is not alone in mobilising pension and insurance funds and channelling them towards large scale infrastructure investments of national importance. He cites examples such as Malaysia, Chile and Mexico where this has occurred.
Nicolopoulos, whose employer, UBS Warburg, advised the Jamaican Government during the search for a developer for the project, points to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), a national social security organisation in Malaysia which places as much as 50 per cent of its annual investable funds into non-governmental securities.
In comparison, the National Insurance Fund (NIF) in Jamaica invested only five per cent of its J$18 billion holdings in acquiring nearly J$1 billion of NROCC's 30-year infrastructure bonds. The remainder of the J$3-billion bond offer was purchased by private pension funds/investors.

Bondholders will be paid interest income half-yearly and they have the option of converting their investment into shareholdings in NROCC, which is projected to receive US$700 million income from tolls charged on the highway for 35 years.
This is the method through which the French developer plans to recoup its investment. At the end of 35 years, TransJamaican Highway Limited is expected to hand over the highway to NROCC, the Government's agent.
The anti-corruption official raises additional concerns that taxpayers will be at a disadvantage because the agreement permits TransJamaican Highway to repay a 15-year bridging loan of US$50 million from a local commercial bank before repaying the loan from NROCC.
Explains Thomas: "Our loan to Bouygues is funded by infrastructure bonds on which we do not have to pay until year 30. When you have a facility with a 30-year period to repay, you are allowed to subordinate its repayment to commercial debt which doesn't have that type of a financial tenure."

He adds that the French construction outfit will begin to repay the loan from NROCC after seven years.
Jamaica, according to Nicolopoulos, has joined more than 50 governments which have adopted this public-private-partnership (PPP) model as a way to finance expensive, but well-needed, infrastructure developments. UBS Warburg, he reports, has been involved in infrastructure projects for governments including Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Mexico, South Africa and Australia.
"The demand for infrastructure upgrades in developing countries is staggering, amounting to an average (of) four to six per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," notes Nicolopoulos. "To put this in context. the need for investment in infrastructure exceeds US$250 billion annually."
The investment banker notes that while other countries have contributed as high as 40 to 50 per cent of project costs, Jamaica, in comparison, is contributing approximately 27 per cent to the capital cost of Highway 2000.

He adds that since there is no annual subsidy from the Government of Jamaica, its contribution to the highway project represents a "relatively low funding requirement compared with other projects that have been developed and funded internationally".
But, say critics, it's quite the contrary.
One of them is Clifton Yap, former president of the Jamaica Institute of Architects. He insists that the Government, and taxpayers by extension, will continue to offer the French developer subsidies for a considerable period during the life of the 35-year agreement.
For example, the developer will receive a series of tax write-offs, including exemption from General Consumption Tax (GCT) and duty on imports for 15 years and a waiver of corporate tax, property tax, withholding tax, stamp/other duties and contractor's levy.

"For corporate tax calculation purpose, the developer's total cost of the project shall be depreciated over the term of the concession period on a straight line basis from hand-over date of each section (of the highway project)," states the Highway 2000 implementation agreement.
In addition to these tax concessions, Yap argues that the Government has hidden the true cost of phase one of the highway project, noting that the near US$390-million price tag does not reflect the value of the already-completed Old Harbour bypass and the Melrose Hill bypass, both of which will become part of Highway 2000.
"These will be handed over to Bouygues, and hence they should be in the total cost (because) there is already, on the face of it, a significant cost to the Jamaican people," he adds.
In responding to this claim, Thomas suggests that the Government will use some of its earning from the 35-year toll road agreement to repay, for example, the loan from the Kuwaiti Government, which financed the Old Harbour bypass.

He argues, additionally, that taxpayers and the motoring public will benefit from the maintenance of roads at first world level by the toll road operator.
Yap also highlights that Government has agreed not to restart the defunct public rail service at a level where it can compete with Highway 2000 for revenue. In his view, this amounts to hindering the development of the country in terms of an overall transportation policy.
According to Thomas, plans for the resumption of the rail service do not anticipate a high speed service, but it was necessary to assure Bouygues that there would be no competition during the life of the toll road.
Another cost waiting in the wings for the Jamaican public is the proposed toll to use segments of the highway. A maximum toll rate of J$3.16 per kilometre has been agreed to, except for use of the proposed six-lane Portmore Causeway, for which the maximum toll is set at J$45.10 one way. The actual amount charged could be less, Thomas explains.

By agreement, and based on law - the Toll Road Act - TransJamaican Highway has to apply to a state regulatory agency for approval of toll rates submitted. And this process has to involve consultation with the commuting public.
Thomas believes motorists will willingly pay the agreed tolls in exchange for the savings on fuel and wear and tear on their vehicles arising from the anticipated ease in grinding traffic.
And what's the likelihood of the proposed toll road system being able to generate the anticipated return on investment? Nicolopoulos, the investment banker, thinks the chances are good.
"With regard to your question on whether the Highway 2000 project is a financially viable enterprise, the answer is unequivocally yes," he says.

[/ QUOTE ]
Beneath Highway 2000's surface

[RichD]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
Courts, schools, Govt offices, Jobs... do u need me to go on?

[/ QUOTE ]

i would think that courts for that jurisdiction are in spanishtown...as are the relevant government offices.

there are schools in portmore.

and as for the jobs part ...like other ppl who live outside the city and work in the city there is a cost associated with the commute ( cost in either time or money or both)

[niceniss]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
let me expand, why they wait until it's a done deal to protest & demonstrate?

I do feel bad for them because gas prices will be going up too [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

what do u mean "done deal"?

Please read and take note of the date:

* some people might recognize a name in the article...

[ QUOTE ]


Toll issue could go to court Toll issue could go to court
Portmore residents vow not to pay






Toll issue could go to court
Portmore residents vow not to pay
Observer Reporter
Saturday, July 31, 2004



PORTMORE residents who have vowed not to pay a toll to use the new six-lane bridge when the Portmore/Kingston leg of Highway 2000 is completed said Thursday night that they were prepared to take the matter to court.

The residents, during a highly-charged meeting of the Portmore Citizens Advisory Council (PCAC) at the Portmore Heart Academy, said they would be employing a lawyer to plead their case.

"It is going to take lawyers to fight this, and that will mean legal expenses," said the Rev Barrington Soares, chairman of the PCAC. But when he asked if the residents were prepared to pay the legal fees, some said no.

Describing the proposed $65-toll as an unjust tax that most people in the community could not afford, the residents mandated the PCAC to:

. work with the developers of the highway to devise an acceptable alternative;

. re-open petition books in churches against the toll; and

. protest the environmental damage that could arise from the construction of the six-lane bridge.

"Nobody considered our traffic problems before, now we get a toll, we not paying nuh toll!" shouted one resident to shouts of approval and cries of "a hospital we want"! from some of the hundreds of residents.

Some of the residents even threatened to block the highway to highlight their case if plans to institute the toll went ahead.

At the same time, Soares chided Kingsley Thomas, chairman of the National Road Operating and Construction Company (NROCC), for being "highhanded" in his approach to the toll issue.

Quoting an Observer story in which Thomas said that "I am not in any fight with a handful of people who are negative about everything" and that "85 per cent of the people agreed to the toll", Soares asked the residents "what majority" to loud shouts of "no"!

Soares said it was not right for the government and private developers to subject Portmore residents to the toll, intimating that the sprawling community of more 220,000 was unfairly being used as a cash cow to finance the highway.
Residents who travel daily into Kingston, he said, would end up paying an average of $31,000 annually.

"If the toll is there everytime we go through we will pay," said Soares, who added that the alternative route would put some residents at a disadvantage by having to travel a farther distance.

No representative of the developers or the government was present at the meeting.

But George lee, who was last year directly elected as mayor of Portmore for the ruling People's National Party, said he was in support of the meeting which gave residents a chance to air their concerns about the proposed toll, but said the highway project was worthy of their support.

"The fact is that Portmore needs Highway 2000 or a new bridge because that present bridge (causeway bridge) cannot last forever," said Lee.

He suggested that residents consider proposing a lower toll, as an alternative, but his suggestion was drowned by shouts of no toll! no toll!.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Labour Party councillor for the Westchester Division, Natalie Campbell-Rodrigues, suggested that the vehicles of Portmore residents should be tagged in order to exempt them from the toll.

"Bahamas has a system where vehicles are tagged and residents use a swipe card to avoid paying toll," Campbell-Rodrigues told the Observer.

Noting that residents should not pay more than $30 for the use of the new bridge, the councillor said the issue of the toll transcended politics. "It is not a political issue, it is a national issue," she said.

One of the more outspoken residents at Thursday's meeting was Trelan Hylton, a young resident of Waterford.

"We already have a primary road, they cannot take away our primary route so they should build another bridge and leave the causeway for us," she told the Observer.

Others like Richard Harris queried what would happen "when the taximan charge more because him have to pay the toll each way".

A resident told the meeting that many of Portmore's residents who were civil servants, like herself, "cannot afford anymore on our MOU salaries".








[/ QUOTE ]

[niceniss]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Courts, schools, Govt offices, Jobs... do u need me to go on?

[/ QUOTE ]

i would think that courts for that jurisdiction are in spanishtown...as are the relevant government offices.

there are schools in portmore.



[/ QUOTE ]
RichD, seriously, did u have something this morning?

You have any idea what u are talking about? Most of the facilities are in kingston, the capital, not spanishtown(why do spanishtown ppl need to travel to kingston if that's true?)

and the schools? are you kidding me? u CANNOT be serious... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70456-eyebrows.gif[/img]


as for the commute, there's already a cost of time and transportation associated, there needn't be another. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[RichD]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Courts, schools, Govt offices, Jobs... do u need me to go on?

[/ QUOTE ]

i would think that courts for that jurisdiction are in spanishtown...as are the relevant government offices.

there are schools in portmore.



[/ QUOTE ]
RichD, seriously, did u have something this morning?

You have any idea what u are talking about? Most of the facilities are in kingston, the capital, not spanishtown(why do spanishtown ppl need to travel to kingston if that's true?)

and the schools? are you kidding me? u CANNOT be serious... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70456-eyebrows.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Im from mandeville and there is very little govet business we need to travel to kingston to conduct these days.

apart from passport i cant think of anyhting( govt of jamaica wise) that is not provided in the parish capitals

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]



can you provide a link to the info on the terms of the agreemet as you stipulate?

[/ QUOTE ]

plenty sites on it [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
I even saw where the Minister of Transport say they had plenty, plenty small Portmore community meetings, newspaper items on the Portmore toll - the ppl knew about it..
RichD u too bad! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

imnot asking about the toll discussion


what im asking about is the speculation that part of the agreement is that the govt not maintain the alternante roads or develop any competing routes/transportation modes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me make this clear the agreement does not spell out it out in that fashion, but the effect of the agreement is that the Government cannot develope the Mandela Highway to add anymore lanes without breaching parts of the Toll Road Agreement with the developers.
This also make it impossible for the train service to be restarted.
Others who took the time to peruse the agreement saw this but it only came to public attention when the Mandela Highway was flooded and when the PNP Media ask why the Mandela could not be improved the answer was the Toll Road Agreement.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Portmore Boycott...


I found the Agreement it is 122 pages in PDF so I will go home and mine it for the info and then post accordingly.

Another thing do you know that the first residents of Independence City paid a monthly fee separate from their mortgages for the first Causeway Bridge?

[niceniss]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

Mandeville has distance and unlike Portmore, it is not considered to be a part of the kingston metropolitan region, hence the availability of facilities in mandeville.

[mangoskin]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]



"Bahamas has a system where vehicles are tagged and residents use a swipe card to avoid paying toll," Campbell-Rodrigues told the Observer.



[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]
what free??? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]
the only tollroad in the Bahamas is the Paradise Island bridge, and everybody pays. There is a pass that taxis and ppl who live on PI buy for about $500 per year. It's electronic like the Sunpass in Fl, that's connected to your dashboard, and the sensors picks it up, and as you approach the toll gate, the gate lifts & lets you over, ain't no swiping. Everyone else stop at the other plazas & pay cash ($1 round trip) B$=US$
Pedestrians have like a half-lane & they walk over free, lots of exercisers do that (& some tourists)

[RichD]

Re: Portmore Boycott...

[ QUOTE ]
Mandeville has distance and unlike Portmore, it is not considered to be a part of the kingston metropolitan region, hence the availability of facilities in mandeville.

[/ QUOTE ]

Portmore is in st cathrine..when since is it considered part of the Kingston metro area?