Downtown fishermen to be relocated in $950m project
Published:Wednesday | March 4, 2020 | 12:41 AM
With the Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project to commence this month, Prime Andrew Holness has given the assurance that several fishermen located in the vicinity along the coast have been included in the development plan.
“There will be some displacement of fishermen, who for years have been docking their boats along the shore here and, by virtue of the construction of the seawall, may not be able to do so. But it is no fault of theirs that the seawall wasn’t there long ago,” Holness said.
“There were fishermen before the seawall, and so if we are going to displace them and dislocate them, then we must consider their livelihood and will create a fishing beach in appropriate proximity.”
The prime minister was speaking at yesterday’s ground-breaking ceremony for the project at Breezy Castle Sports Centre in downtown Kingston.
The Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project, which is being funded with a $950-million loan from the World Bank, will see the implementation of one kilometre of composite seawall and armour stone revetment structure.
Holness lauded the groundbreaking as another milestone in Jamaica’s sustainable development and an indication of how the Government was working assiduously to position Kingston as a resilient city.
“This intervention will secure the overall street corridor and protect critical infrastructures along the coastline for the impacts associated with sea-level rise and coastal erosion,” Holness said.
The project will also see the upgrading of draining features, as well as the rehabilitation and raising of one kilometre of the existing roadway.
Additionally, a 4.7-kilometre-wide boardwalk will also be constructed to improve the site’s aesthetics and promote recreational activity along the shoreline.