Jamaica highway rated a success

More than 1 million vehicles have been recorded traveling on Jamaica's costliest construction project, the North-South Expressway, since the end of March following its completion, according to a leading executive at China Harbor Engineering Co, the company that built most of it.

Lin Yichong, chairman of State-owned CHEC, a unit of China Communications Construction Co, said that as the Caribbean nation has only 1.2 million vehicles, this figure indicated the highway has worked well to improve regional connectivity in Jamaica, as well as creating more than 2,000 jobs in the services sector for local residents.

The four-lane, 65-kilometer and $732-million highway is CHEC's first overseas infrastructure project using the "build, operate and transfer" model. The Chinese company's share of total contract value was $540 million.