THE Portmore Municipal Council says that it wants a share of the toll to be collected for use of a proposed six-lane bridge over the Kingston Harbour, but it was not immediately clear on what basis it will demand a portion of the take of what is essentially a private sector development.

The bridge, to replace the existing causeway linking Kingston and nearby Portmore, is part of the Highway 2000 project, a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer expressway being developed by the French construction company, Bouygues, which has been granted a 30-year concession.

But George Lee, Portmore’s directly-elected mayor, on Monday raised the issue of his council getting some of the cash generated by the bridge at a community discussion on the environmental impact of Highway 2000 on the community and the harbour.

“It is only fair that part of the toll collected by government should go towards fixing Portmore roads, as our residents will have to pay each time they use the road,” Lee said

The money, Lee said, would be allocated to “fixing notoriously bad roads within the community” and he promised that a proposal would soon be sent to the operators of the road.

Neither Trevor Jackson, managing director of TransJamaican Highway, the Bouyges-controlled subsidiary established to manage to operate the toll road, nor Dr Wayne Reid, the managing director of National Road Operating and Construction Company (NROCC), the vehicle used by the Jamaican government, commented on Lee’s suggestion although both were present at the meeting.

NROCC’s executive chairman, Kingsley Thomas, was unavailable for comment yesterday, but the Bouygues concession agreement did not appear to allow for the sharing of income with either the central government or any other agency.

NROCC, under the concession agreement, raises on the Jamaican market the equivalent of US$107 million, or about 27 per cent of the approximately US$400 million that it will cost to build the initial 74-kilometre section of the highway between Kingston and Williamsfield in Manchester.

The cash was on-lent to the developers, but the government has consistently promoted this as a straight commercial arrangement.

A 13-kilometre segment of the highway, between Bushy Park in St Catherine and Sandy Bay, Clarendon has been opened since September, and a 36-kilometre stretch between the Mandela Highway, just outside Kingston, and Bushy Park is scheduled to be completed in October. This is to be followed by a 25-kilometre segment between Bushy Park and Williamsfield/Mandeville.

The six-lane bridge into Portmore, where a re-developed ring road will connect with the tolled expressway, is scheduled to start within the next few months.

However, some environmentalist have argued that the bridge will do damage to the already badly affected Kingston Harbour.

Environmental activist, Diana McCauley, for instance, was concerned that the bridge posed significant danger to Hunts Bay, which she described as a major fishery whose viability had declined over the years due to pollution and increasing sedimentation.

But TransJamaican’s Jackson said the bridge would not adversely affect the bay since “widening of the road will take place on the Rio Cobre side, not the Waterford side”.

NROCC’s Reid suggested that the bridge was the least of the harbour’s proble. Its great danger, he argued, was from the raw sewage that flows into it.

“Hunt’s Bay’s problem is what is coming into it, not what is going across it,” Reid said.

Eleanor Jones, managing director of Environmental Solutions Limited, in the presentation of an environmental impact assessment by of Highway 2000, said that every attempt would be made to preserve and in some instances improve the natural habitat.

Among the mitigation measures would be:

. fugitive dust to be minimised by wetting;

. covering of stockpiled earth materials;

. use of heavy machinery and noisy equipment during regular working hours;

. construction vehicles will use Dyke road to transport material for the first phase;

. scheduling of construction works;

. deposit of solid waste by certified contractors in registered sites; and

. a public road safety campaign

Among the positive impacts noted by Jones were:

.Improved drainage systems through engineering design;

.landscaping and vegetative buffers;

.generation of employment;

.an upgraded fishing village;

.replacement of mangroves and habitat;

.reduced travel time;

.reduced wear and tear on vehicles;

.increased movement of goods and services;

.improved road safety; and

.improved traffic flow and management.