Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill (at controls), assisted by excavator operator, Heron Grindley, of E. Phil and Son Contractors, breaks ground and officially open Segment 2A of the Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project yesterday. - CLAUDINE HOUSEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ROBERT PICKERSGILL, Minister of Transport and Works, signed a contract valued at approximately US$50 million last Saturday, for the dualisation of the roadway from the Sangster International Airport to the Wyndham Rose Hall Hotel in St. James.
Immediately after the contract-signing, he broke ground to mark the official start of the work, which will be carried out under segment two of the North Coast Highway Improvement Project (NCHIP), which runs from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios.
In his address at the contract-signing ceremony held at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, Mr. Pickersgill said that at the request of tourism interests in the second city, a decision was taken to to revise the scope of work under segment two of the NCHIP. Segment two, which covers 27 kilometres from Montego Bay to Greenside in Trelawny, will now include the dualisation of the corridor from the airport to Rose Hall.
He explained that this part of the project was financed by a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The work will be undertaken over 18 months.
"The contract starts this month and is scheduled to end in September 2007. Two lanes of carriageway along the corridor as well as 50 per cent of the four-lane portion of the road is scheduled for completion in March 2007, before the start of Cricket World Cup," Mr. Pickersgill said.
President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Horace Peterkin, lauded the Government for agreeing to undertake the project.
He noted that about 70 per cent of hotels and tourist attractions in western Jamaica were located along the corridor from the airport to Rose Hall. "It's going to do a number of things. It's going to enhance the product in different ways, improve the comfort of our visitors, the time travel from the airport to the hotels and will substantially improve the image of the destination," he said.
