SEGMENT 2A OF NORTH COAST HIGHWAY OPENED

A section of the newly opened Segment 2A of the North Coast Highway Improvement Project.

Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry officially opened Segment 2A of the North Coast Highway Improvement Project (NCHIP) on Thursday, July 18, 2008. The opening ceremony was held at the Royal Gardens property in Rose Hall, St. James.

The Project which commenced in March, 2006, was opened after 28 months of construction. It is just one part of the NCHIP, which involves improvements along the corridor linking the towns of Negril, in the northwest to Port Antonio in the northeast of the island.

Speaking at the opening, Minister Mike Henry used the opportunity to warn utility companies that they would soon have to pay to lay cables and other infrastructure along the island’s road network. He explained that he was examining the regulations which govern the utility companies and other service providers in terms of their usage of the roadway.

“I am working on what is called a ‘right of way’ policy to work out the necessary charges that that relate to where cables and light posts are run along newly built roadways,” the Minister disclosed. Continuing, the Minister said, “I am examining the law as it existed that allowed people to use the roadway to run their cables and I am going to see how we can implement a cost earning system, for the maintenance of roads,” the Minister noted.

Segment 2A of the NCHIP was constructed at a cost of over $3B by Danish contractors E. Pihl & Sons A.S. The project consisted of 27km of roadway between Greenside in Trelawny and the Sangster International in St. James. Of the 27km of roadway, 13km in St. James, between the Seacastles Hotel in Rose Hall and the Sangster International Airport have been dualised. The Project involved the widening and re-alignment of the corridor, the construction of two Underpasses; one at the Half Moon Hotel and the other at the Rose Hall resorts. Numerous accesses from major developments along the roadway, Bus Bays junctions, improved drainage and safety features are also important characteristics of the new corridor.

Managing Director of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), Ivan Anderson in his address spoke to the important role that good roads play in the economic development of a nation. He echoed sentiments of John F. Kennedy who once said, “It is not wealth that which creates roads, but good roads that develop wealth.”