Above: Kingston

The Jamaican government is moving to have a proposed new National Building Act approved, Industry Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said this week.

According to Tufton, the first draft of this act has been completed and reviewed by the board-based Building Code Implementation Steering Committee.

“We have been working … in terms of the new building code,” he told engineers assembled at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel Monday. “I am told that [$466,581], through the Bureau of Standards, for the development of the new building code has been allocated and spent to ensure orderly, safe, energy efficient construction.”

An additional 25 percent of that money had been made available to continue the process, he said.

Lenworth Kelly, the president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, said there were several issues critical to the future of Jamaican construction.

“Our physical infrastructure faces a myriad of challenges, and we see attempts are being made to address them,” he said. “We seek to focus on factors influencing site selection, hazard mapping, zoning and standards.”

–Jamaica Information Service