HIGHWAY HURRY
NROCC confident that work on May Pen to Williamsfield leg will be completed ahead of March 2023 deadline
MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Work on the Us$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 is fast advancing and is now slated to be completed before the new March 2023 deadline.
The project – which will reduce travel time between Kingston, Mandeville and points west – was originally scheduled for completion in October 2022.
Stephen Edwards, managing director of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company Limited (NROCC), which is responsible for overseeing the design, construction and maintenance of Jamaica’s highways, told the Observer that the project is now 72 per cent complete.
“The work is moving apace. We have already started surfacing, laying asphalt at some sections of the highway. The work is moving really fast,” said Edwards.
The 28-kilometre May Pen to Williamsfield leg includes major infrastructure upgrades such as the Rio Minho Bridge.
According to Edwards, when completed this will be the largest four-lane bridge in Jamaica.
“The beams for all spans have been lodged… I am excited to showcase that bridge at the end of the construction, because it is a monumental accomplishment for this highway as part of this project,” he explained.
But Member of Parliament for Clarendon South Western Lothan Cousins is convinced that millions of dollars can be saved on the project if plans to remove a roundabout are shelved.
“It is a simple solution that requires the Government through the National Works Agency to agree that the roundabout, which is at the end of the current highway, will remain and that the residents will have access to their homes,” argued Cousins.
He added that if the roundabout is removed it will create inconvenience for business interests and residents of surrounding communities who may have difficulty accessing their properties.
“The plans that they have to build another interchange just a stone’s throw away, beyond the bridge at the river, [should] be abandoned, that would save the Government millions of US dollars,” Cousins declared.
He is hopeful that the concerns of residents of Woodleigh, a community located south of May Pen, will be addressed at a consultation meeting scheduled for later this month.
But Edwards is adamant that the interchange will be built near the Rio Minho Bridge and the existing roundabout removed.
“We are going to demolish the roundabout. It is one continuous highway, so you can’t have a roundabout in the middle of a highway,” Edwards argued as he added that the design of the interchange is still being finalised.
“It is a full interchange. It will basically facilitate the roads that are there now. It is really just replacing the roundabout. The roundabout is an archaic kind of thing. It doesn’t facilitate highway speed travel.
“You will [still] have access to all of the formal roads that were there before,” added Edwards.
In Manchester the highway project is advancing uphill with eastbound traffic expected to be diverted starting Sunday, May 8 from the Melrose Hill Bypass to the Old Melrose Hill Road for seven months.
Edwards said the traffic change, which was pushed back by one week, is to facilitate the construction of an interchange in the vicinity of the bypass.
“We wanted to make sure that we get the details right and that we have adequate time to notify the motoring public, because we want to make sure that everybody is aware of how the traffic management system will work long before it is implemented and that all of the details are in place,” he said.
China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which is the contractor of the highway project, has said it has completed major rehabilitation work on 2.7 kilometres of the Old Melrose Hill Road from Williamsfield to Porus to facilitate the traffic change.
“The works comprised bushing and clearing along the impacted section of roadway followed by asphaltic concrete overlay. This has transformed the driving comfort enormously and is consistent with CHEC’S objective of being a responsible corporate citizen,” a statement from the company read in part.
CHEC added that during the traffic diversion it would upgrade the Melrose Bypass to a four-lane dual carriageway.