Work progressing on the Portmore leg of Highway 2000. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE EDITOR, Sir:
WE ARE responding to your front page article of The Gleaner of February 20, 2006, entitled 'Bouygues begins pull-out'.
The Highway 2000 project is essentially a private sector project which, when completed, will include in excess of 260km of tolled highway across the country, connecting Kingston with Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. The Government of Jamaica through its grantor, National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), has awarded a concession to the developer of the project, Trans Jamaican Highway Limited, which has in turn contracted with Bouygues Travaux Publics to construct the road.
The project itself is broken down into two phases which are further broken down into sub-components:
PHASE 1:
Phase 1a: Sandy Bay (Clarendon) to Mandela Highway including the Portmore causeway; and
Phase 1b: Sandy Bay to Williamsfield (Manchester).
PHASE 2:
Williamsfield to Montego Bay and Bushy Park (outside of Spanish Town to Ocho Rios.
Currently, Phase 1a is under construction and will be completed by July 2006 with the completion of the Portmore causeway leg of the project. The next phase planned for the project is Phase 1b (Sandy Bay in Clarendon to Williamsfield in Manchester). However, over the past few years a number of new imperatives have caused the developers and the Government to look at bringing forward the section of the roadway from Spanish Town to Ocho Rios.
The primary issues which have given rise to this review are as follows:
1. The significant increase in traffic along the Spanish Town to Ocho Rios corridor is currently in excess of 12,000 vehicles per day traversing the Bog Walk Gorge.
2. The new developments now taking place between Montego Bay to Ocho Rios, where some 12,000 new rooms are either planned or under construction, and will significantly increase the demand for new attractions. A number of these new attractions are located on the southern coast and include: Spanish Town's Historic District; the Milk River Spa; Kingston's Historic District and Port Royal.
3. Increasing congestion of the current corridor through the mountainous terrain or Mount Rosser and Mount Diablo, which creates more frequent disruptions, especially due to accidents and breakdowns of large trucks; and
4) The reduced reliability of the existing gorge route as a result of increasing flood rains.
The developer is presently contracted under the Concession Agreement, which lasts for 35 years from November 2001 to November 2036, to provide financing, construction, operations and maintenance to Phases 1a and 1b. He has planned to go back to the financial markets after the first section, Phase 1a, has been in operation for a number of months. This is based on the novelty of toll roads in Jamaica and the need to assure the markets that projections have been satisfied by actual performance. To date, the project remains robust as performance targets have been met consistently.
In the break between the completion of Phase 1a and the start of Phase 1b, there would be nothing for the contractor, Bougues Travaux Publics, to do and, therefore, he has to reduce his overhead costs. The developer will need the contractor when he is about to start Phase 1b. This we expect will be started in 2007. We trust that this clarifies the present position.
I am, etc.,
Wayne Reid
Managing Director
