MONTEGO BAY, St James — Members of this western city’s business community have expressed consternation that the completion date for a section of the long-awaited Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project has been pushed back to May 2027.

“The fact that it is delayed, we are concerned, we are very much concerned. Time means money and the more you take of our time is the more we lose,” second vice president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) Nadine Spence told the
Jamaica Observer Wednesday when asked for her thoughts on the later-than-expected completion date.

National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), which manages the project on behalf of the Government of Jamaica, provided the new deadline for the Long Hill Bypass section of the work earlier this week in response to questions raised by the Observer. Minister with responsibility for works, Robert Morgan, attributed the delay to fallout from last October’s Hurricane Melissa. The Category 5 storm battered the Catherine Hall and West Green communities where a lot of the work is being done. Morgan said there had also been an earlier delay caused by 2024’s Hurricane Beryl.

“While we understand that there are natural disasters, we are thinking that there needs to be much more urgency in the execution of the work,” the MBCCI’s Spence insisted.

She is hoping the completed sections will be open to the public while work continues.

“At one time we were told that one leg could be open. Could this be considered that some aspects of it be opened while we wait on new date? We will accept that even then,” she appealed.

Almost a month after Hurricane Melissa, an optimistic NROCC Managing Director Stephen Edwards told the Observer the project was still expected to meet its May 2026 deadline, sending sighs of relief across the city which continues to sag under the weight of traffic congestion made worse by work intended to fix that very problem. However the most recent deadline is September 2026 for the Montego Bay Bypass and West Green Avenue sections. Though the Barnett Street leg has been moved forward to an April 2026 completion date, that is little comfort to many Montegonians. Among them is Spence who is concerned about the impact the missed May 2026 deadline on the Bypass and West Green Avenue sections will have on the staging of Dream Wknd 2026. Scheduled for July 30-August 3 it is expected to bring thousands of revellers to a city already choked with traffic.

“This news [of the delay] only means that Montego Bay will only continue to face the challenges of lingering traffic snarls which continue to negatively impact the affairs of the western city. Especially with the fact that we have accepted the invitation to host Dream Wknd, we can only imagine the kind of impact that is going to have on us where that is concerned,” Spence told the Observer.

“It is so unpredictable: It’s fine today and another day you’re jammed up; the entire area just gridlocked for hours. It is waste of time, it is waste of energy, it is quite inefficient the way we travel,” she insisted.

Montego Bay businessman Mark Kerr-Jarrett, who also expressed concern at the delay in the “desperately needed, decades overdue” bypass, is worried that the Long Hill leg is being hampered by land acquisition delays.

“I am now being told that the National Land Agency, or whoever, is requesting a pre-check plan to accompany each acquisition and agreement of sale,” said Kerr-Jarrett who is a major player in the real estate sector.

He is of the view that this is unnecessary and time consuming.

“The requirements for a pre-check plan are nonsensical and it takes up to nine months to get a pre-check plan done. Everything, all of the acquisitions are going to be put back by a minimum of four months and anywhere up to nine months,” he said.

Looking ahead to when work is finally completed, Kerr-Jarrett is also suggesting that the government rethink its decision to toll the bypass.

“The very people that need to use it the most are the ones that are the most unwilling to pay,” he argued.

“This is a part of the municipal infrastructure, you might call it a bypass road but it is a part of the municipal infrastructure in order to alleviate the congestion in the city,” Kerr-Jarrett added.