KINGSTON, Jamaica—Traffic flow changes are expected during ongoing road improvement works on the Naggo Head to Braeton road project in St Catherine, under the Government’s Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) programme.

Manager, Communications and Customer Relations, National Works Agency (NWA), Stephen Shaw, provided an update on the project during a recent interview with JIS News.

“We continue our work under the Capital Expenditure Programme. The road from Naggo Head to Braeton, St Catherine – work is ongoing on that project. It’s a $2-billion work project. The activities are being ramped up, and so persons can look out for those activities,” he said.

“We are going to have to make some changes in traffic flow. We are going to be advising the persons in Portmore, in particular, at the appropriate time, so they can make whatever arrangements and modifications to their travel pattern and take into account those changes in respect of their travel time,” he said.

The project runs for approximately three kilometres from Naggo Head to the intersection of Braeton and Hellshire Road to the final turn-off into Greater Portmore.

It will be a four-lane roadway with raised median and traffic signals at the relevant locations, adequate sidewalks, drains and water lines, as well as ducts for fibre-optic cable as part of the National Broadband Initiative.

The Capital Expenditure Programme is an urban transportation improvement programme designed to support the Government’s short to medium-term economic growth goals and provide crucial infrastructure to foster future development or redevelopment.

The six projects that fall under the CAPEX programme include widening of Grange Lane, St Catherine; widening and dualisation of Braeton Road and part of Hellshire main road, St Catherine; widening of Arthur Wint Drive, St Andrew; widening of East Kings House Road and Lady Musgrave Road, St Andrew; and widening of Sandy Gully Bridge along Washington Boulevard (Patrick City-Ken Hill Drive), Kingston; and improvement of access to Portmore via Mandela Highway on to Municipal Boulevard, St Catherine.

Meanwhile, Shaw informed that the defects liability period for the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project will commence following the practical completion of the project.

“We are also looking to wrap up work on the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project. The work is expected to be completed by the end of March, which will then kick-start the defects liability period, which is going to be a period of two years,” he said.

The defects liability period sets a period during which the contractor is required to remedy any issues that have arisen since the start of construction.

The multibillion-dollar Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project is an integrated infrastructure development that spans the parishes of St Andrew, St Thomas, and Portland.

The roadway upgrade is intended to address, among other things, major flooding and drainage issues; roadway widening, sidewalk and other safety features.

-JIS