Highway extension to impact Melrose Hill Yam Park

The existing Melrose Hill Yam Park will not be accessible by persons heading to Manchester when the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 is completed.

Errol Mortley, environmental manager at the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), said when the highway is constructed, there will be a median that would prevent crossing over into the facility from the westbound lanes.

"If you are going towards Mandeville, you wouldn't be able to cross and go to the current site," he said. The solution, Mortley said, is to design and build another eight stalls on the westbound side, a project that NROCC would be undertaking.

"We are working on all of the planning and the layouts, and it will be managed by the Manchester Municipal Corporation," he said.

Major construction work is in progress for the third phase of the Highway 2000 programme, which is a 28-kilometre stretch from the Rio Minho Bridge in Clarendon to Williamsfield.

Ivan Anderson, managing director of NROCC, said persons who are travelling between Williamsfield and Porus would be able to use that section of the highway free of cost.

Anderson said that there are interchanges along the highway that would facilitate movement between the old and new roads.

"Our first interchange is in Toll Gate, where we connect back to the existing roadway to allow people to go back to food establishments, service centres and other facilities in that location," Anderson said. "The second interchange is just at the edge of Porus, where you'll be able to get back into that community."