TOLL GATE, Clarendon — Leaders in the petroleum industry are urging retailers and marketing companies to wait until the end of the toll-free period of the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 to determine the viability of business on the now partially deserted old road.

Following the September 14 opening of the highway, motorists have bypassed at least six service stations between Osbourne Store to Clarendon Park in Clarendon and Porus in Manchester.

President of Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA) Errol Edwards told the Jamaica Observer that the new year will give a clearer picture for businesses now affected by the highway.

“It is early days yet for people to mount complaints. The true test will be when the toll is implemented, because right now there is no charge… Right now everybody is using it but I am sure that as the toll charges are there then people will use the old road, which will be the alternate route,” he said last week.

“It is not a proper measurement to determine what will happen maybe five or six months down the road. It is early days yet, and it might be a bit premature to try and judge just the impact that it will have on business overall,” he added.

Edwards is encouraging even small business owners to wait and see what will happen in the new year when the highway is expected to be tolled.

“I have seen in the media where persons that have other businesses that have been bypassed are complaining, but I would rather prefer to wait and see what will happen later on,” he said.

Dianne Parham, JGRA’s immediate past president, shared similar sentiments and pointed to the possibility of businesses now experiencing low sales seeing some benefit in the new year.

“We don’t know what the toll rate is going to be, and that toll rate may well be prohibitive for some persons. Certainly, if it becomes prohibitive for the average person then many people will go back to their old route because, again, you have to look at the cost benefit,” she said.

“I would certainly say to business interests that you have to wait until you have all the variables in place before you make a decision, because you have to look at all the factors before you decide how to proceed,” she added.

The highway project included 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.

Edwards said the May Pen to Williamsfield highway — which reduces travel time from Kingston to Mandeville and other points west — has tremendous benefits for the transport industry.

“It will be an easier flow. It will move from the congestion of the town so, of course, it will enable smoother flow. It is just a matter of time before things will smooth out, because I am sure if there are no service stations on the highway then people who need gas will have to come off the highway to get it and come back on,” he explained.

“This is not something new. The same thing happened on the north coast [leg of] Highway [2000] when it bypassed the town of Ewarton and Linstead. There was no problem. The persons who are commuting locally will still have to go through the town to go into the various areas to get home, so I really don’t see that as an issue,” added Edwards.

For decades Clarendon Park has been the go-to place and rest stop for commuters travelling between Kingston, Mandeville and points west along the south coast. A toll plaza in the vicinity of Toll Gate is approximately 1.2 kilometres away from Clarendon Park.

Parham said every development has a cost associated with it.

“We have to look at development for the greater good, and this is something that was long planned. The greater good of the country is what we have to put before everything else, and that road will cut so much time and just doing business will be so much greater because people now can travel that terrain from Kingston to Mandeville in a much quicker time. There are so many spin-offs,” she said.

“It is just the cost of development — and you have to look at how you adjust your business in line with the development,” she added.