The Cabinet gave approval last year for the Government to enter into a contract with China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC) to undertake the project.
Minister Audley Shaw said the new highway will run from Harbour View in Kingston through Morant Bay in St Thomas and on to Port Antonio, Portland. The government already allocated funding in the current financial year to begin preparatory work on the project including surveys, an environmental impact assessment and design reviews.
The new highway will include four lanes from Harbour View to Bull Bay, which will be reduced to three lanes and then two lanes as it continues to Port Antonio.
Shaw said that the government re-scoped the original cost following a review of the initial plans for a toll road between Harbour View and Morant Bay. “We determined that the economic feasibility wasn’t there for that,” he said. Half of the money will now be used to build the southeast coastal highway and the other half will be used to extend the east-west toll road.
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