Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Services
Source: The Jamaica Observer, Patrick Foster, March 14, 2007
Highway
2000 change saving US$200m
The change in the route of the Bushy Park to Ocho Rios leg of
Highway 2000 could save the country as much as US$200 million,
according to Ivan Anderson, an executive of the state-run National
Road Operating and Construction Company (NROCC) which has
oversight responsibility for the road-building project.
Anderson indicated that the cost
to construct the highway along the original Lluidas Vale route was
projected at US$460 million, while the budget for the proposed
Linstead/Bog Walk route is considerably less at US$260 million.
"The difference between both
is substantial," Anderson said.
This leg of the highway, which
could see work beginning in October, is being funded through loans
received from BANDES bank in Venezuela.
Reduction in the cost for
constructing the new alignment stems, in part, from the inclusion
of the existing Linstead bypass, as well as the road from Moneague
to Golden Grove in St Ann, which will be upgraded to four lanes,
Anderson said, adding that those sections of the highway will not
be tolled.
Sections of the road where
motorists will have to pay a fee are the new four-lane highway
constructed to bypass Mount Rosser, another section constructed to
bypass the Fern Gully and the section by-passing Spanish Town, the
Bog Walk Gorge and Flat Bridge.
Last Thursday, Kingsley Thomas,
outgoing chairman of NROCC, at a public forum convened by the
Management Institute for National Development (MIND), voiced
reservations about the new alignment of the Bushy Park/Spanish
Town to Ocho Rios leg of Highway 2000, saying that it constrained
development and was more mountainous.
"We should be doing roads
for development," said Thomas, who conceptualised and
negotiated contracts for the Highway 2000 project.
He told the forum titled 'The Toll
Road. Did we get it right?' that the change of alignment was based
on advice from traffic managers in order to capture the heavy
volume of traffic that already used the Mount Rosser corridor, the
major connection between Kingston and the north coast.
"Highway 2000 is expected
to spawn a number of new developments along its corridor and to
act as a catalyst for new investments," Thomas argued.
However, Anderson yesterday said
that where development was concerned, the proposed route offered
more land than the abandoned Worthy Park/Lluidas Vale corridor.
"The development potential
is small in comparison," he said. According to Anderson,
along the Lluidas Vale route only 1,100 hectares of land would
have been available for development against the 6,800 hectares
available on the proposed Bog Walk route.
Construction cost-savings, and
development potential aside, Anderson agreed that returns were
expected to be appreciably higher with the merging of the new
highway into the existing road network.
"People living in the areas
in and around the existing road (Bog Walk, Ewarton and Linstead)
would not have been able to use the highway with the original
alignment in Lluidas Vale. Traffic levels would be significantly
lower," said Anderson.
Anderson, former head of the
National Works Agency (NWA), said further that the proposed Bog
Walk route was given the nod bearing in mind the numerous studies
that had been done prior to the advent of Highway 2000.
He explained that the terms of
reference for the new Highway 2000 route, done in 1999, were based
primarily on the construction of a brand new road and "did
not look at using the old corridor".
"Analysis of a Spanish Town to
Ocho Rios highway was done over a long period of time, prior to
the advent of Highway 2000, and all the previous studies used this
proposed route," he said.
"In 2005 we did a
comparison between the studies and decided on using the existing
Bog Walk route. That is the recommendation going to Cabinet for
discussion and approval," said Anderson.
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