Eastbound traffic changes take effect today as upgrade works on Mandela Highway near completion

Starting today, traffic heading into Kingston along the Mandela Highway has been switched to new driving lanes just after clearing the traffic lights at the Tom Cringle Drive intersection.

The National Works Agency’s (NWA), Communication and Customer Services Manager Stephen Shaw, explains that motorists will travel on two newly-paved lanes located to their right when going across the Tom Cringle Drive intersection in the vicinity of the Nestle headquarters.

Shaw says the new lanes, which adjoin the westbound carriageway, are located on a ramp. As such, he explains that motorists will continue up a gently sloping grade to get onto the Overpass Bridge at Six Miles from where they would travel as they normally do onto either Spanish Town Road or Washington Boulevard.

The temporary detour was constructed to allow for the continuation of the installation of a box culvert over the Duhaney River. The first half of the structure has been completed and facilitated the recent opening of the new westbound lanes along the Mandela Highway. The box culvert is the last major structure scheduled to be built as part of the road improvement project.

The traffic change will remain in place until works on the box culvert are complete.

Progress on the US$57 million Mandela Highway Reconstruction Project is 91 per cent to date. Some 400 metres of final pavement works are still to be done beyond the Tom Cringle Drive intersection to tie in the new carriageways with the existing roadway up to Six Miles. 

Works also continue on completing two ramps connected to the Overpass bridge, while the construction of remaining concrete Jersey barriers is still being done along some sections of the project.

Double beam safety rails as well as the requisite directional signs have been installed along the detour ramp to guide motorists. Road users are being reminded that the Mandela Highway remains a 40 kilometre per hour construction zone and they are expected to adhere in the areas on which motor vehicles have been permitted. 

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