CLARENDON, Jamaica — With the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 set to be opened at 4:00 pm on Thursday, workers are putting on the finishing touches even as an opening ceremony gets underway.

Up to midmorning Thursday, construction workers on the highway were busy securing a metal barrier near one of two toll booths on the highway. Trucks assigned to China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), the contractor for the project, were also moving supplies for the highway.

Several Cabinet Ministers, business, political and civic leaders are among those in attendance.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is expected to officially open the highway during a ribbon cutting on the border of Manchester/ Clarendon.

READ: May Pen to Williamsfield Highway to open today

The May Pen to Williamsfield highway project — which will reduce travel time from Kingston to Mandeville and other points west — was originally scheduled for completion in October 2022. This was then changed to January 2023 and later March 2023.

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.

— Kasey Williams