WHITNEY TURN, Clarendon — With the August deadline for the completion of the May Pen to Williams leg of Highway 2000 fast approaching, fruit vendors here have expressed mixed views in bracing for a likely decline in business.

For decades, restaurants, roadside eateries, bars and vending spots in Clarendon and Manchester have been go-to places and rest stops for commuters travelling between Kingston, Mandeville and other points west along the south coast.

The highway project — which will lower 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.

In 2021 the Sunday Observer highlighted that the highway will bypass thriving business locations between May Pen and Porus.

Among the locations are fruit stalls along the main road near the Manchester/Clarendon border.

A fruit vendor who identified himself only as Douglas told the Sunday Observer that he is bracing for a fallout in his business at Scott’s Pass in Clarendon.

“Yea man, whole heap. Nuff fallout ago gwan. Less people going to come here, less selling, less everything,” he said last week.

He said relocating was among the options for vendors, but there is uncertainty as to what will happen.

“I sell orange, banana, pineapple, naseberry, sour sop, sweetsop, just about every little product. I have to just take it as it is, because I don’t have a next choice. One of the times they said they were going to relocate us down to Clarendon Park, we don’t hear anything more, so we don’t know what is what,” he said.

However, Heyward McLean, another fruit vendor, was optimistic as he weighed his options as to what he will do once the highway is opened.

“Well, you have a lot of people going to travel on it enuh and some of them can’t find the money for the three tolls [Vineyard, May Pen and new toll booth] and the toll is very expensive. If they drop the toll rate, you will find more vehicles taking the toll and operating on the toll, but the toll is too expensive,” said McLean.

He said he was “not worried about his business.

“All I know if nothing not turning [making profit], I will get a little ride [car] and stay at Portmore go sell at the mall or drive and go sell or come back home a mi yard,” said McLean, a vendor for nearly four decades.

“I have been selling fruit here from me a 15-year-old. Me a sell ackee from it was three dollars a dozen,” he added.

In March, Jukie Chin, founder and proprietor of Juici Patties, said while he is expecting a loss in sales at his Clarendon Park location following the completion of the highway, he believes it will be minimal.

“… The average, day-to-day, fixed-salary person like the taxi man and the people going to work [who] cannot afford the toll [daily should still make purchases], so we would lose no business from them. I think we will lose a little business from curiosity, but once curiosity is over [some] people are going right back to the old road,” he had told the Sunday Observer.

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.

When completed, the highway will reduce travel time between May Pen and Williamsfield to below 15 minutes.

McLean is concerned that the Porus main road will fall into further disrepair once the highway is completed.

The highway when completed will give motorists travelling along the southern section of the country an option to bypass the roads including the narrow Porus main road.

“As soon as the rain dew, a lot of accidents happen on this part of the Whitney Turn road. All seven, eight vehicles crash and turn over. The road needs to be asphalted better. The road is too shine. From in Porus come right to Whitney Turn needs to be fixed properly, it is very slippery,” said McLean.

He also pointed to a heavily leaking pipeline at Whitney Turn that is affecting businesses in the area.

“The water right in front of the bar, we call the National Water Commission more than 50 times and they don’t come and fix it. It causes a lot of accidents and the bar owners can’t get to sell the goods in her bar, so we ago block the road, it needs to be fixed. They say water is precious and the amount of water being lost there, so we have to be paying for it,” McLean said.