BY KARYL WALKER walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com Wednesday, August 06, 2014
THE Linstead to Moneague leg of the North/South link of Highway 2000 was officially opened yesterday, giving the nation a huge 52nd birthday gift that will significantly slash the average two-hour travel time between the capital and the north coast tourism belt.
As of 6:00 am today, motorists can travel for free on the high-speed motorway until September 5, cutting out the narrow, winding and treacherous Mount Rosser route.
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| Vehicles travel on the first leg of the north/south highway, yesterday. (PHOTO: JIS) |
Opening the highway during a ceremony at the Treadways toll both yesterday, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller urged local business interests to seize the economic opportunities that will flow from the new development.
“We are expecting new opportunities for tourism. I am urging local entrepreneurs to position themselves for new economic activities to be derived from the new highway,” Simpson Miller said.
The four-lane highway is 19.3 kilometres long and has 11 bridges, a toll plaza, brake checkpoints, and escape lanes.
It will now take approximately 18 minutes to cover the journey which would previously take anywhere over 45 minutes on the Mount Rosser route, which was not designed to accommodate large trucks and trailers that traverse the hilly terrain daily.
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| Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller holds a scissors aloft after she cut the ribbon signalling the official opening of the second leg of the North/South leg of Highway 2000 yesterday. |
Managing director of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), said there were plans to construct a rest stop along the highway and relocate 50 of the vendors from the popular Faith’s Pen food stop who have expressed concern that their livelihood would be severely affected as fewer motorists would be using the Mount Rosser route. more
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