TRANSPORT Minister Robert Pickersgill says the expansion currently being undertaken along a section of Marcus Garvey Drive to ease the congestion experienced by motorists exiting the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 is expected to be completed by the end of next month.

Minister Pickersgill, who toured sections of the Mandela Highway, Passagefort Drive, Port Henderson Road and Marcus Garvey Drive yesterday, said plans were also in place to improve the flow of traffic along the entire Marcus Garvey Drive corridor. However, he said the government was unable to immediately source the financial resources to support the project, which will cost a little over $100 million.

“.It is not that we did not have these plans. All of the plans that I have described before now are there, the missing link was really the financing and that has taken some time,” said the transport minister.

“When the Highway 2000 (Portmore leg) was constructed we did not, I must confess, anticipate that traffic flow would have grown 100 per cent in less than six months,” he said. “Right now more traffic is on the road than when the road was free,” added the minister.

Meantime, Jean-Noel Foulard, project and branch director at Bouygues, the developers of Highway 2000 and contractor for the Marcus Garvey Drive upgrading, told reporters that work currently in progress will involve the widening of the existing two lanes to three lanes from the intersection of Highway 2000 and Marcus Garvey Drive to Portia Simpson Miller Square, with a fourth dedicated left turning lane being added at the intersection.

“To ease the traffic coming from Portmore, there will be two lanes straight to Three Miles, plus one lane for traffic coming from downtown,” he said. “Half way to Three Miles we will put another lane dedicated to motorists turning to Spanish Town Road,” said Foulard.

Meanwhile, Pickersgill said the expansion of the Mandela Highway and Passagefort Drive, as well as the rehabilitation of Port Henderson Drive, were done at a cost of half billion dollars.

Yesterday, as Pickersgill toured sections of Passagefort Drive, which was recently upgraded to a four-lane road, residents said they welcomed the improvement.

“During the peak hour, when there was traffic it was terrible because there was a lot of pot holes, but now it is much better,” said one woman. “The drain is good because there were no drains, but we can’t say (if the drains are effective) for now because there is no rain,” she added.

Councillor Keith Blake (JLP, Independence City) said he was satisfied with the result of expansion even though he had concerns about adequate parking initially. But the councillor expressed his concern about the lack of traffic lights and signs on the stretch of road.

“I accept this road because of the configuration of it to date, except to say that the traffic signals are badly needed and the speed limits because the drivers are speeding along the corridor and we need to ensure that respective speed limits are adhered to and the residents are protected,” he said.

However, Minister Pickersgill told Councillor Blake that this matter would be addressed.

Last year, business operators in the area had expressed their concern about the rehabilitation. They said then that while they were in support of the much-needed rehabilitation, the widening of the roadway would reduce the number of parking spaces they would have for customers.