WORK on the long-promised project to widen Grange Lane in Portmore is set to finally come on stream later this year, the National Works Agency (NWA) has said.

In 2021, the NWA had invited bids to undertake the project which entails the dualisation of 1.1 kilometres of Grange Lane, from Municipal Boulevard to Madrid Avenue in Independence City. However, the agency says the contract, which was awarded in 2022, fell through.

“The Grange Lane Project was re-tendered as the contract was awarded last year but the contractor failed to perform the awarded contract,” Acting Manager for Communication and Customer Services Stacy-Ann Delevante told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

She said the project is currently going through the approval process and is scheduled to go to Cabinet in September 2023.

“Upon approval by Cabinet we will award the contract for commencement later this year,” Delevante said.

The road dualisation project, for which $743 million was allocated, should have started in December last year. It is expected to address the traffic woes in sections of Portmore through the development of four lanes, 3.65 metres wide each, with turning lanes at critical intersections.

The NWA, in a previous update on the project in September last year, had said that it will also include works on Madrid Avenue and the Cumberland Gully Bridge, drain improvements, as well as the installation of pipes and culverts.

Speaking on the issue in his contribution to the 2023/24 Budget Debate, Prime Minister Andrew Holness had promised that the dualisation of Grange Lane would start in the first quarter of the 2023/24 fiscal year.

In the meantime, speaking to another road improvement project yet to get off the ground, Delevante said the work to widen the Braeton to Hellshire main road is going through the approval process.

“The project must receive the approval of the Public Investment Appraisal Branch (PIAB) of the MoFPS [Ministry of Finance and the Public Service] and latterly, the Public Investment Management Committee (PIMC). After the PIMC approval the project will be placed in the Public Investment Management System (PIMS), confirming financing for it,” she said.

Delevante said the NWA has completed the engineering designs and advanced the land acquisition process, and will shortly submit the required documents to the PIAB.

“We anticipate going to tender later this year and to award a contract early 2024,” she said.