Mt Rosser bypass (Jamaica) opens tomorrow

TOMORROW is D-Day for the official opening of the Linstead-Moneague or second leg (Mount Rosser Bypass) of the delay-plagued North South Highway.

The formalities will take place at China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Americas’ Treadways Toll Plaza at 10:00 am. Special guests will include cabinet ministers, Members of Parliament, ambassadors and heads of several agencies.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will give the keynote address.

The North/South link of Highway 2000 stretches from Caymanas in St Catherine to Mammee Bay in St Ann, crossing the Rio Cobre and bypassing Mount Rosser and the infamous Flat Bridge. The highway will travel through the communities of Waterloo, Content, Giblatore and Wakefield in St Catherine. Nearby communities in St Ann include Phoenix Park, Golden Grove, Steerfield and Davis Town.

Started during the previous administration, the project was plagued with contractual issues and a two-year suspension, until work resumed last October and a completion date for the entire North South link set for 2016.

Work on the first segment of the highway, which connects Caymanas to Linstead, started in October and work on the third segment — from Moneague to Ocho Rios — started in November.

This was over three months behind the previously scheduled dates for the start of the first and third segments of the roadway. The first segment was scheduled to begin in May 2013, while the second section was to have begun in June 2013 with their expected completion dates in 2015. The new completion date for all three segments is now January 2016.

Jamaica North South Highway Company Limited (JNSHCL) is the developer and CHEC, the contractor for the North South Link. The National Road Operating & Constructing Company Limited is the Government of Jamaica representative responsible for overseeing construction activities and to acquire the necessary lands.

The North/South Link is expected to cost US$610 million, and will be financed by loans from China Development Bank and from equity provided by CHEC.

Under a Concession and Implementation Agreement signed in June 2013 at the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, the measurements for the link will be as follows: Caymanas to Linstead — 27.5 km; Linstead to Moneague (Mount Rosser Bypass) —19.5 km; and Moneague to Ocho Rios — 20 km.