KINGSTON, Jamaica — Work on the US$56-million Hagley Park Road Improvement Project, designed to significantly improve traffic flow in the Corporate Area, is on track for completion by the end of the summer.

In a recent interview with JIS News, Senior Communications and Customer Services Officer, National Works Agency (NWA), Ramona Lawson, said that the bridge works are “practically done”.

“We have allocated one month each for completion of the roads heading to Half-Way Tree and heading towards Three Miles. So we should be practically complete within the announced time if not shortly thereafter. It is safe to say that by the end of summer 2019, we should have sufficient use of the roadway,” she said.

Lawson told JIS News that pavement works have concluded on a 250-metre section between Mahoe Drive and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and work will continue into mid-May to complete another one kilometre above Keesing Avenue.

 “While we are working on the pavement aspect of the project, we are also working on installing the jersey barriers (to separate lanes of traffic). There are now just a few properties outstanding where we are currently retracting the boundary walls, so those works continue,” she noted.

The Hagley Park Road Improvement project includes the widening of 3.6 kilometres of roadway from Three Miles to Maxfield Avenue; constructing a double overpass, installing and upgrading a number of traffic signals and street lights, undertaking drainage improvement, and setting back perimeter fences and boundary walls.

It forms part of the Government’s legacy projects being implemented by the NWA, to improve the island’s road network in order to enhance the quality of life for citizens and stimulate economic growth and development.

The legacy projects are being undertaken by China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC) under the Major Infrastructure Development Programme (MIDP), which is being administered by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

—JIS