PM Announces Williamsfield to Hodges Leg of Southern Coastal Highway

The Government plans to extend the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project further westward from Williamsfield in Manchester to Hodges in St. Elizabeth.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, who made the disclosure in his contribution to the 2023/2024 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday (March 16), said the scope of the project includes improvements of the existing road

infrastructure as well as putting in bypass roads for Mandeville, Spur Tree, Junction, Southfield and Black River.

“These bypasses are necessary to ensure that we do not create bottlenecks, which impede the flow of traffic and defeat the purpose of building the highway,” he said.
He noted that work on the current segment of the highway, from May Pen to Williamsfield, is 90 per cent complete and is set to open in August.

On completion, the highway will be the property of the Government of Jamaica for which an operating concession will be negotiated.

The May Pen to Williamsfield segment involves constructing approximately 23 kilometres of a four-lane highway and upgrading approximately five kilometres of the existing Melrose Hill Bypass to a four-lane rural arterial divided highway.

The Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project is being executed by the National Road Operating and Constructing Company Limited (NROCC), which is also undertaking construction of the US$274.5 million Montego Bay Perimeter Road in St. James.

The US$274.5 million project, for which ground was broken in July 2022, includes the Perimeter Road, Long Hill Bypass, Upgrade of West Green Ave and Barnett Street, and a Drainage Study of the Montego Bay area.

Work on the project is scheduled to start in July, after the one-year design phase. “Citizens will see construction activities ramp up during the first quarter of financial year 2023/24,” the Prime Minister said.

Pre-construction work already undertaken includes surveying, soil testing, design, provisions for a batching plant and land acquisition.

Turning to other road projects, the Prime Minister said work will commence shortly for a full grade-separated interchange between the North-South Highway and the East-West Highway in the Caymanas vicinity.

Pre-construction works are slated for 2023/24.

“This is just one step in the long-term plan to build out a fully connected road network across Jamaica that allows users to move seamlessly across the island,” the Prime Minister said.

Turning to the North Coast Highway, the Prime Minister said that based on the most recent traffic numbers, several areas along the highway have already exceeded the 15,000 vehicles per day threshold, which was contemplated in the original traffic studies, resulting in growing congestion.

He noted that Sea Castles to Greenwood has the largest capacity deficit and improving this corridor to four lanes would allow for an increase in the daily capacity to approximately 39,800 vehicles.

He said the corridor does not have any major geometric constraints to improving the existing alignment.

As it relates to the Discovery Bay to Salem segment, the Prime Minister noted that there are several entry and exit points, and encroachments and limited reservations, that constrain capacity and the potential for widening the corridor to four lanes. Therefore, a bypass option is being considered.