As motorists of Portmore, St. Catherine, make their way in heavy traffic on the causeway to Kingston last Friday, workmen from Highway 2000 construct the new six-lane Toll Road bridge. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE FOUR-KILOMETRE Portmore leg of Highway 2000 remains on target for completion by the end of June, the operator of the tolled highway has said.
Trevor Jackson, managing director of TransJamaican Highway, said last week that work on the three interchanges on the highway was progressing steadily and that traffic was diverted in the vicinity of Marcus Garvey Drive to allow for the construction of an interchange at that point. He said construction of a boxed culvert structure at Fort Augusta has been completed and construction of the ramps for the interchange will begin in October.
"The boxed culvert structure at the Dawkins Drive interchange is also in progress and is expected to be completed later this month as construction of the ramps are scheduled to start in November," Mr. Jackson outlined in a statement.
CAUSEWAY REMAINS OPEN
In the meantime, he is insisting that the causeway in Portmore, St. Catherine, will not be closed during the construction of the highway.
"I want to assure the public that the causeway will remain open until the completion of this phase of Highway 2000," Mr. Jackson emphasised. He was responding to reports that the bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic. "We expect that traffic will have to be re-routed at various stages to facilitate the construction programme, but this will not impede the flow of traffic on the causeway," he said.
Highway 2000 was conceptualised by the government as part of its Millennium projects. The tolled highway is the first its kind on the island and in the Caribbean. The multimillion-dollar high-speed roadway currently extends from Ferry, just outside of Kingston, to Sandy Bay in Clarendon and later next year from Portmore to Kingston.
