Work to resume on Portland leg of highway

Boston, Eastern Portland:

The National Works Agency (NWA) has said that work on the Portland leg of the Southern Coastal highway project is to resume in a matter of days following the appointment of a new subcontractor by the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).

Communications Manager of the NWA, Stephen Shaw, told journalists on Wednesday that with the hiring of a new subcontractor works on approximately seven kilometres of roadway from Boston to Drapers in Eastern Portland will soon restart after some setbacks that lasted for months.

According to Shaw, the previous subcontractor’s decision to terminate the agreement it had with CHEC resulted in a delay in the actual work, which will now be undertaken by the new subcontractor.

Outstanding issues to be addressed include work on the kerbs and channels, side drains and culverts.

“The new subcontractor should be in a position to ramp up the activities as it relates to sections of the corridor,” Shaw said.

The Portland leg of the Southern Coastal highway extends from Hectors River to Folly Oval in Port Antonio, a distance of approximately 26 miles or 41.6 kilometres.

Shaw said that based on discussions to date it is expected that the contractor should be able to give the public at least one kilometre of paving per month and where possible will deliver more.

“We really want to get the activities completed at the earliest, because we do recognise and understand the challenges that persons out here have been facing with the water lines having to be put down. We have sewer lines elsewhere along the road and that too would have caused some challenges, and the dust nuisance that persons out here have had to be contending with.”

He said by next month people should start seeing significant changes between Boston and Drapers.