TRANSJAMAICAN, the Highway 2000 concessionaire, is still pushing to deliver the full phase one project by June 2006 despite setbacks caused by the weather.

"More or less that is still the target," said managing director Trevor Jackson of the mid-2006 deadline.
"We have had some delays with the flooding and the rains, so it is still a little too early to tell," he said.

Work underway on the toll bridge connecting Kingston and St Catherine. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

The highway developers are already well-advanced on the first leg of the project, which will run from Mandeville to Kingston, and are on track to complete Jamaica's largest bridge ever, to replace the Portmore Causeway.

The bridge is expected to be the most impressive aspect of the toll road development. The full Kingston-Mandeville link, covering 85 kilometres, is a US$390 million project.

TransJamaican's sister company, Bouygues Travaux, is building the road, while Jamaica Infrastructure Operators mans the toll booths and maintains the built road.

JACKSON... we have had some delays with the flooding and the rains

TransJamaican will own the highway for 35 years.
The developers/owners have invested their own funds in the project and will recoup through the tolls charged, but a portion of the financing, US$107 million, is in the form of a loan from government, issued through its oversight agency for the highway National Road Operating and Construction Company.

Jamaica is still in the hurricane season, which officially ends November 30, and could see more rains as weather systems develop. A delay, however, will not impact the cost of the project.

"We are a fixed price contract so no (cost over runs)," said Jackson. As to the nature of the ongoing works, he said, "the one half of the bridge is almost complete and the portion of works between Portmore and the Portmore side of the bridge is well advanced."

"It is that section of the road," he noted, "that the traffic will be put on to (this weekend). Some of the interchanges are in various states of progress but broadly we are on schedule."

williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com

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