John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
LYN
WITH CONTROVERSY swirling around the construction of the Portmore leg of Highway 2000, it is now being suggested that Government facilitate the construction of a toll bridge across the Kingston Harbour to connect downtown Kingston with the Palisadoes peninsula.
Cowell Lyn, a civil engineer with over 20 years experience in constructing docks and harbours across the Caribbean, is proposing that serious consideration be given to the construction of a toll bridge. He argued that apart from the improvement in transportation, it would "add value to the city, add value to the harbour and provide numerous economic benefits".
PROPOSED BRIDGE
The proposed bridge, he outlined using maps and photographs of the area, would be about a mile long extending from the Breezy Castle area in downtown Kingston to the old runway area adjacent to the Norman Manley International Airport.
The bridge would significantly reduce the seven miles it would take to travel from Breezy Castle to the airport using the Palisadoes road.
Mr. Lyn said the bridge could also be used to anchor utility lines, such as electricity cables, across the harbour to the Palisadoes strip and Port Royal. He said Petrojam has been examining for some time now the feasibility of running a gas pipeline across the harbour to supply aviation fuel to the airport. However, he noted that the risks involved in running it underground have been delaying the project. He said the pipeline could be safely anchored on the bridge across the harbour.
PURPOSE OF BRIDGES
"This is one of the purposes of bridges, they can carry utilities very economically often at great economic benefits ... so you could avoid all the riskiness of the utilities being buried in the vulnerable coastline area by bringing it across on the bridge," he related.
Mr. Lyn, during a recent interview with The Gleaner, also argued that the proposed bridge would provide an alternative route of reaching or evacuating residents of Port Royal in the event that the Palisadoes road is damaged or becomes impassable during a storm.
MIGHT WORK
Trevor Jackson, managing director of TransJamaican Highway, a subsidiary of Bouygues Travaux Publics, the developers of Highway 2000, said "it might work depending on the traffic and the cost of the bridge."
Earl Richards, immediate past president of the Jamaica Institute of Engineers (JIE), agreed that the construction of a toll bridge across the harbour posed immense potential, pointing to the spin-off benefits from the development of downtown and surrounding areas.
With a toll bridge, Mr. Richards said, "you will find that everything on the peninsula (and) the whole (of) Port Royal would be ten or fifteen minutes away." He noted that a toll bridge would prove viable in light of the increased traffic expected to come from people using the airport, as well as developments along the Palisadoes peninsula and Port Royal.
