MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Even as the Government announced August 2023 for work on the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 to be finished, contractor China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is assuring that it is working hard to meet the deadline.

The project — which will reduce travel time between Kingston, Mandeville and other points west — was originally scheduled for completion in October 2022. The last date of completion given was March 2023 and before a timeline was given for January 2023.

Valton Simpson, health, safety and environmental engineering manager at CHEC, told the Jamaica Observer last week that aspects of the project were nearing completion.

“We have completed most of the construction activities that would have been impacted by prolonged and extensive rainfall, like the construction of the bridges and so on and the necessary slope stabilisation work on the fill embankments. What we are basically doing now is the laying of asphalt. Most of the first layer is already completed. We are presently in some sections putting on the wearing course that is the final asphalt layer,” he said.

“We are approximately 92 per cent complete and we are working very hard to meet the new deadline, which will be August of this year,” added Simpson.

Newly installed signs were among the infrastructure observed during a tour of the highway by the Sunday Observer.

In Manchester, the highway project is advancing uphill, with eastbound traffic as of mid-2022, being diverted from the Melrose Hill Bypass to the Old Melrose Hill Road to facilitate the construction.

When asked how soon work on the Melrose Hill Bypass will be completed to allow eastbound traffic, Simpson cautiously explained that CHEC was moving apace there.

“I don’t want to give you a definite completion date, but we are working very assiduously to see if we can complete it in the shortest possible time to facilitate both the westbound and the eastbound lanes,” he said.

Errol Mortley, environmental manager at the National Road Operating & Constructing Company (NROCC), which is responsible for overseeing the design, construction and maintenance of Jamaica’s highways, said as soon as the roadworks are completed on the bypass, permission will be sought from the National Works Agency (NWA) to allow eastbound traffic.

“We want it as soon as possible, but we want to make sure that all of the road markings and other facilities are there and we get the permission from the NWA to do so…We want it to be a safe corridor, so that we can minimise poor driver behaviour and crashes,” he said.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness in his 2023/2024 Budget debate presentation said the Government of Jamaica owns the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of the highway.

“After the construction is finalised the highway will be the property of the Government of Jamaica, it will be a tolled highway and therefore the Government will negotiate a concession for its operation, but the Government owns the highway,” said Holness.

The highway project includes the design and construction of approximately 23 kilometres of a four-lane, arterial divided highway on a new alignment and the upgrading of approximately five kilometres of the existing Melrose Hill Bypass to a four-lane, rural, arterial divided highway.

The May Pen to Williamsfield leg spans major infrastructure including the Rio Minho Bridge — the largest four-lane bridge in Jamaica. CHEC will be removing the roundabout at the entrance/exit of the May Pen leg of the highway to incorporate it into the leg towards Williamsfield. An allocation was made for the building of an interchange close to a section of the Bustamante Highway for a new entrance/exit for Highway 2000.