South Coast Highway works to start in 3 months – Vaz
Published:Thursday | March 5, 2020 | 12:29 AM
Major works on the Southern Coastal Highway are to start in three months, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Daryl Vaz, has told Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee.
A pre-rehabilitation exercise along areas of the roadway marked for construction began last October.
Vaz told Parliament on Tuesday that the Holness administration was mindful that several persons residing on lands to be utilised for the new highway would be displaced by the development.
He, however, stressed that the Government has been in dialogue with the stakeholders and will not be ruling out compensation for dislocated settlers.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness broke ground in November 2019 to commence the multibillion-dollar Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project.
The undertaking will entail the rehabilitation of approximately 110 kilometres of roadway between Harbour View in St Andrew and Port Antonio in Portland and the 26-kilometre thoroughfare from Morant Bay to Cedar Valley in St Thomas.
The total cost of the project is US$384 million. Of that sum, $195 million will be spent on the eastern portion of the roadwork while the remaining $189 million will be allocated to the Highway 2000 extension.
The project will be executed by China Harbour Engineering Company.