Lead Stories

The multibillion-dollar Highway 2000 project is causing fresh headaches for the Bruce Golding administration.

The Government's point man for the project, Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry, yesterday told journalists that the repair job on the Portmore leg of the highway will take much longer than scheduled and work on the Mount Rosser leg has stalled and will cost much more than the US$123 million budgeted.

The repairs to the Portmore leg of the highway started in May and were to last for five months.

However, Henry disclosed that the repairs will continue into next year and will cost the developers US$8 million.

"I was hoping that the work would be done by the Christmas season, but it will go into January or February of next year," Henry told journalists at the post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House.

"I tried to get them to do more work at nights, but they have issues with security," Henry added.

That is bad news for residents of Portmore, who have repeatedly argued that the repair work has reduced the six-lane highway to four smaller lanes while bringing traffic to a crawl during rush hour.

The Portmore Citizens' Advisory Council recently charged that persons who normally spend half-an-hour on the toll road are now spending two hours.

The council has scoffed at the toll operators' decision to offer discounted rates twice each day, arguing that this does not make up for the delay and the risks they face with the narrow lanes.

The road repair became necessary to correct undulating sections of the roadway, mostly within the vicinity of Gordon Cay.

One-year delay

The repair is being done with a new technology to Jamaica, which involves using foam under the new road surface.

In the meantime, Henry yesterday announced that construction of the Mount Rosser leg of the highway has come to a halt with a delay that could add one year to the construction time.

The Mount Rosser leg of Highway 2000 was designed as a 25-kilometre, four-lane dual carriageway from Linstead, St Catherine, to just outside Moneague, St Ann.

It had an initial price tag of US$99 million, which was expected to cover land acquisition, road construction, the building of a toll plaza and the installation of utilities, over a 30-month period.

This was increased to $123 million after areas of weak and unstable soil were discovered during construction.

The highway was slated to open next month.