Cabinet approves $493M highway interchange project

Jack Warner announced on Thursday that cabinet has approved the completion of the billion-dollar interchange to connect the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway to the Uriah Butler Highway.


The Works and Transport Minister said the estimated cost is $493 million, excluding value added tax (VAT). 

The French firm Vinci Construction will work on one phase of the project and the Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency (PURE) unit of his ministry will do the rest of the work.

The minister said a major component of the project would be the removal of traffic lights from the highways and the construction of access roads.

"The intention here is that those traffic lights at the Grand Bazaar junction you have where you normally have to wait 15 to 20 minutes sometimes to move, those will be a thing of the past once this interchange is completed," Warner said.

"There is hope that by the end of 2011, construction may start on this overpass for the removal of those traffic lights," he added.

Warner said Vinci is currently working on the Aranjuez overpass, which is ahead of schedule. That project was started by the previous government with a budget of $400m.