PM Breaks Ground For Port Royal Coastal Revetment Project
By: , March 4, 2020The Key Point:
Photo: Rudranath Fraser
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (third left), breaks ground for the commencement of the Port Royal Coastal Revetment Project, downtown Kingston, on Tuesday (March 3). Also participating in the ground breaking (from left) are Mayor of Kingston, Senator Councillor Delroy Williams; Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Mike Henry; Chairman, Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Dr. Wayne Henry; and Caribbean Director, World Bank, Tahseen Sayed; and Managing Director, JSIF, Omar Sweeney.
Photo: Rudranath Fraser
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (right) shakes hands with Chairman, Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Dr. Wayne Henry (left), at the ceremony to break ground for the commencement of the Port Royal Coastal Revetment Project, downtown Kingston, on Tuesday (March 3). Sharing in the moment is Managing Director, JSIF, Omar Sweeney.The Facts
- The project aims to create protective infrastructure that will safeguard the Port Royal Street corridor, downtown Kingston, against the adverse effects of natural disasters and climate risks.
- It will incorporate work along the coastline from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade building to the Rae Town Fishing Village and will include construction of a one-kilometre composite seawall and armour stone revetment structure; upgrading of drainage; and rehabilitation and raising of one kilometre of the existing roadway.
The Full Story
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, on Tuesday (March 3), broke ground for the commencement of the Port Royal Coastal Revetment Project, which will be undertaken at a cost of approximately $950 million.
The project aims to create protective infrastructure that will safeguard the Port Royal Street corridor, downtown Kingston, against the adverse effects of natural disasters and climate risks.
It will incorporate work along the coastline from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade building to the Rae Town Fishing Village and will include construction of a one-kilometre composite seawall and armour stone revetment structure; upgrading of drainage; and rehabilitation and raising of one kilometre of the existing roadway.
The works are designed to resist a 100-year return period of storm waves and surges.
Also to be undertaken is construction of a 4.7-metre-wide boardwalk to improve aesthetics and promote recreational activity along the shoreline; and an 80-metre fishing beach for fishermen, who currently berth their vessels along the shoreline.
Prime Minister Holness said the project “marks another milestone in Jamaica’s sustainable development and the positioning of Kingston as a resilient city”.
He noted that the intervention will secure the Port Royal Street corridor and protect critical infrastructure along the coastline from the impacts associated with sea-level rise and coastal erosion.
“We should be able to do it without any form of complication, within the budget and on time,” he said.
The Port Royal Street corridor is an integral part of the east-west transportation network in the Kingston metropolitan area.
The revetment project is being undertaken through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP), which is funded by the World Bank.
Also participating in the ground breaking were Mayor of Kingston, Senator Councillor Delroy Williams; Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Hon. Mike Henry; Chairman, JSIF, Dr. Wayne Henry; Managing Director, JSIF, Omar Sweeney; and Caribbean Director, World Bank, Tahseen Sayed.