Highway 2000 co-ordinator and chairman of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), Kingsley Thomas (left) examines the concession agreement of the Highway 2000 project along with Radde Pascal (right), executive manager of Trans Jamaica Highway, before signing the document at Le Meridien yesterday. - Norman Grindley A MULTI-million-dollar concession agreement was signed yesterday between the Government of Jamaica and one of the world's leading construction firms, Bouygues of France, to build the island's first toll highway.
The highway dubbed Highway 2000 is designed as a 230-kilometre, toll expressway from Kingston to Montego Bay and involves the construction of a new six-lane bridge across the Portmore Causeway.
Minister of Finance and Planning, Omar Davies, who was involved in the signing of the concession agreement, the implementation agreement, the equity shareholder, the government procured debt and guarantee agreements said that, "on completion, highway 2000 will be the largest infrastructure project in Jamaica and indeed the English-speaking Caribbean."
The agreement which got initial Cabinet approval in December 1999 and full Government sanction on June 18 and 25, 2000, contains all the legal obligations of both the concessionaire led by Bouygues of France and the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC) which will provide general oversight on behalf of the Government of Jamaica. Bouygues will be operating under a company called the Trans-Jamaican Highway Company Limited.
Minister Davies noted that under the agreements Bouygues will design, finance, construct, operate and maintain the highway under the 35-year concession agreement.
He said also that Bouygues has an obligation at its own cost, "to design, build, finance and maintain the project in accordance with good engineering practices and carried materials produced or originating in Jamaica."
Bouygues is also expected to complete the construction of the highway within a time frame at its risk without appeals to the Government for guarantees now or in the future unless specifically mentioned in the agreement.
Minister Davies said all efforts are now focused on Phase I which runs from Kingston to Williamsfield in Man-chester. Bouygues will be responsible for $13 billion or 72 per cent of the $18 billion cost of phase I.
In his presentation at the signing of the concession agreement, which is expected to generate jobs and improve efficiency, Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, said, "... We are committed to Highway 2000 as the centrepiece of our country's infrastructural development for the next few years. Strange as it seems the road to development calls for the development of roads."
