Thirty-seven of Jamaica’s busiest road corridors will be upgraded under the Main Roads Component of the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme, as the Government invests $25 billion to improve connectivity, ease congestion and support islandwide economic activity.

The investment will rehabilitate 37 priority roads in St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. James, St. Ann, St. Mary, Trelawny, Hanover and Westmoreland, benefiting more than 900,000 Jamaicans.

Speaking yesterday (July 2, 2026) at the launch of the programme at Jamaica House, Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, noted that the islandwide programme includes several major engineering interventions designed to improve traffic flow, strengthen connectivity and unlock economic opportunities.

Work orders have already been issued for 31 projects, allowing the main contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), to begin pre-construction activities.

“We have issued 31 of the roads as work orders and that means that China Harbour, who is the contractor on the project, will begin to do the preparatory works and then move into actual construction”, the Prime Minister said.

Two flagship projects were announced under the Main Roads Component.  The  Washington Boulevard Improvement Project, which will feature a grade-separated crossing at Molynes Road to increase capacity and reduce congestion, and the Dunrobin Avenue Extension to East Kings House Road via Sandy Gully, a major new roadway that will improve connectivity between Constant Spring Road and East Kings House Road.

In his address, Minister with responsibility for Works, Hon. Robert Nesta Morgan, underscored the importance of investing in Jamaica’s major road network.

“The roads leading to our schools, town centres, hospitals, markets, plazas, and government services transport hundreds of thousands of people and facilitate billions of dollars of economic activities. They are not simple surfaces that we travel on. They are arteries through which the Jamaican economy moves”, he stated.

Highlighting the transformative impact the programme will have on the public, Minister Morgan noted that approximately 150,000 trips are made daily along five major corridors, Red Hills Road, Washington Boulevard, Oxford Road, Port Henderson Road and the Old Harbour to Freetown corridor.

“These are workers trying to reach their jobs, students travelling to schools, patients seeking health care, businesses transporting goods and families carrying out their ordinary activities in life,” he said.

The SPARK Main Roads Component complements the programme’s Community Roads Component, which focuses on improving roads within communities and connecting residents to the national road network.

More than 300 roads have already been brought under the wider SPARK Programme and over 25 local subcontractors engaged alongside China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), to accelerate one of the largest road rehabilitation programmes undertaken in Jamaica in recent years.