Holness heralds pivotal road improvement plan promoting growth, linkages
Published:Saturday | June 28, 2025 | 12:08 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has announced a sweeping road infrastructure development plan across the island, with a strong focus on urban expansion and connectivity. The announcement came ahead of Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony in Portmore for the expansion of the roadway from Naggo Head to the Hellshire Road stoplight – a project set to begin immediately and projected to be completed in 16 months.
Speaking on-site after receiving an extensive briefing from Robert Morgan, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for works, and Varden Downer, senior director of project implementation at the National Works Agency (NWA), Holness detailed the scope of the initiative and its strategic importance.
The prime minister disclosed that taxpayers will be funding a $1-billion investment to expand two key corridors – Braeton and Hellshire Road.
“Overall, it is $30 billion worth of expenditure under a special programme called the Captex programme. This programme was announced just after the COVID pandemic,” he said.
Holness underscored the complexity and scale of capital works of this nature, responding to criticisms about the pace of government infrastructure projects.
“It is important that the public understands that when it comes to significant capital works, it cannot be done overnight, even in six months,” Holness explained, citing planning, design, environmental impact, and viability surveys as significant time-consuming factors.
Holness highlighted Portmore’s growing economic potential as a major reason behind the current infrastructural investments.
“Here we already have established economic nodes,” he said. “Portmore is becoming largely the kind of self-generating, self-contained economic entity operating on its own and once that happens you are going to find more local traffic being generated.”
He added: “So the idea is to build out the urban road infrastructure within Portmore so that it eases traffic, increases convenience and places Portmore to be an excellent economic hub in Jamaica, and that is really in advance of Portmore becoming a parish.”
TECHNICAL DETAILS OF PROJECT
Downer provided technical details on the scope of the roadworks, which fall under the Government’s Integration Infrastructure Development Programme. He said the expansion will include water lanes, sewerage mains, adequate sidewalks, and fibre-optic ducts to facilitate the installation of modern communication infrastructure. He also noted that little or no land acquisition is needed to facilitate the project.
The prime minister also stressed the importance of ensuring that local businesses are not disrupted during the construction.
“As the surveys are being done, care should be taken where the ingresses for businesses along this corridor are concerned,” he said.
In a light-hearted conclusion to the ceremony, Holness was given a crash course on operating an excavator, which he then used to officially break ground for the multimillion-dollar project.
The Portmore corridor upgrade is one of several infrastructure projects planned under the Captex and Integration Infrastructure Development programmes, aimed at reshaping Jamaica’s road network and stimulating urban economic growth.