Davis: MoBay Bypass project to start before end of 2022

WESTERN BUREAU:

HOMER DAVIS, minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister, is vowing that work on the long-awaited Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project will progress by or before the end of the 2022 calendar year.

Speaking on Wednesday during the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s launch of its 2022 telethon to support the Cornwall Regional Hospital, Davis said that significant stakeholder participation will be needed to address the issues that are likely to come up during work on the roadway project, which will see construction of a 14.9-kilometre bypass of the western city.

“For those of you who were listening to the Budget presentation yesterday [Tuesday], as it relates to the Montego Bay Perimeter Road, some $4.9 billion was set aside in the budget to deal with land acquisition and the continuation of designing for this perimeter road. I am hoping, based on what the technocrats are saying, that on or before the end of this calendar year we should see some action,” said Davis.

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS ANTICIPATED

“With this road coming on stream, we need to pull all stakeholders together because these activities are going to cause a lot of traffic problems … and we are here to look at how we will mitigate some of that nightmare. Sometimes we have to listen to the people and with this perimeter road, we are going to have consultations and the community will be consulted,” Davis added.

He was reaffirming a declaration made in 2020 by Ivan Anderson, managing director of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company, who had identified 2022 as the year for the commencement of the bypass project. At that time, Anderson stated that the project’s timeline had been pushed back due to disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last November, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation signed a US$274.5-million contract with the China Harbour Engineering Company Limited for work on the bypass to be carried out. The work to be done will include construction of the Montego Bay bypass road, rehabilitation of Barnett Street and West Green Avenue, construction of the Long Hill bypass (10.5 kilometres), as well as a drainage study of the Montego Bay bypass area.

Commenting further on the project, Davis lamented that the scope of preparatory work to be done could have been avoided if the bypass had been built during the 1970s.

“Fifty years ago, if we had done this bypass, then the things that we are doing now, we would not have to do. We have to be purchasing homes that persons have been living in for years, plus valuation (of properties) is being done and several parcels of land are being looked at, so it is a tedious task,” said Davis.

“Montego Bay is still the fastest developing city in the Caribbean and we have to keep it like that. We have to prepare how we are going to get our people to and from work in a timely manner, and to get our children to and from school in a timely manner,” he added.