New St Thomas road plan is ill-conceived

The PNP back on 2015 announced a plan to build a new 4 lane highway from Harbour View to Morant Bay in St Thomas , which would then be expanded to Port Antonio.

The first leg would have been to Morant Bay and was projected to cost just over US$500M or J$63B  for approx 50km( 32m)of highway .

The announcement of this highway was music to the ear of myself and others, who have long held the view that St Thomas, despite its close proximity to Kingston was the forgotten parish.

I was therefore shocked to hear the current minister of everything ( err sorry) Finance announce, that those plan were scrapped as they made no economic sense. Recall Audley Shaw built a 1km by-pass which was completed in 2011 at a cost of J$1b and that made economic sense. Today that is cost is about $1.5b in today’s dollars

Audley is now telling us that to spend $63b  for a 50Km for lane highway does not make economic sense, is the man serious.

Let’s do some very basic maths( I know its very simplistic  but just to demonstrate a point.

The Christina bypass was $1b for a 2 lane roadway, bridge and land acquisition included,at a per lane cost it would be $500m ( 2011)per lane per km.

The highway from harbour to St Thomas, which includes new bridges, overpasses, land acquisition and 4 brand new lanes was expected to cost $63b for 50km road way.

Cost per lane along this highway equates to $315m in today’s dollars, while in today’s dollars the Christiana bypass would have been $750m per lane or twice the cost of this new highway.

Now can you tell me which makes more economic sense.

Under the new ill-conceived JLP “bitter” ( better) plan ( I am bitter), we will have one extra lane for trucks according to the PM and re-alignment of the road in some areas as well as rehabilitation of the existing road network .

In addition the JLP is saying they will build a four lane road from harbour view to Bull Bay. but alas a 4 lane road already exist from Harbour to bull bay ( stops at St Benedict Catholic Church) and cannot extended to 11 miles which is the border of St Andrew and St Thomas without major land acquisition and destruction on many homes and businesses, along this roadway.

If this really is the better plan, then I am believe the JLP administration has been mislead by someone and is misleading the people re 4 lane from Harbour View to Bull bay.

To spend US$385M to add one lane on the existing road from Morant Bay ( I more believe its from Yallahs) to Bull Bay and rehabilitate the existing road cannot be more cost effective than to build a brand new road, with the latest in highway road construction technology.

In 1997, the PNP government did a complete overhaul of the road network from Morant Bay all the way to harbour view and a very significant cost, putting in new subsurface of rocks and cement as well as vapour barriers to avoid moisture coming up to the asphalt, but alas look at the road today.

This is the very road the JLP wants to overhaul once again, with this ill-conceived plan, which would NOT make economic sense.

I would suggest that the JLP seriously rethink this plan and go back to the original PNP plan, but this time consider adding toll to the road network to recover some of the economic cost of the road.

The existing road, should under go minor repairs and be dedicated to the trucks to move material from St Thomas into Kingston with a nominal charge for each load, which will be sued to help maintain this road

This is my opinion is the “better” plan.