Holness urges bold building as Kingston Harbour Walk design deal signed

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness said Wednesday that the Kingston Harbour Walk Project must drive a lasting change in how Jamaica approaches architecture and public works, arguing the country has for decades been “afraid to build” and now needs decision-makers ready to accept measured risk and press ahead with large-scale infrastructure.

Using downtown Kingston as his chief illustration, Holness said the capital has neglected assets that should define it, among them Kingston Harbour, which he described as having been left underdeveloped for years. He spoke at an official signing ceremony held Tuesday at the Carib Cement Sports Club, where the agreement covering the project’s second feasibility study and detailed designs was formalised.

“Over a course of a generation, the city quietly turned its back on the finest harbour in the world. You know, Jamaicans have a concept of front page — front yard. The truth is we have not treated the Kingston Harbour as if it were our front yard. We have treated it like our backyard, and you know the front yard, that’s where you welcome guests. And indeed, the harbour is the front yard,” said Holness.

He said his Administration intends to reclaim the city and remake it as a resilient, developed and productive place whose amenities serve Jamaicans, visitors and investors.

“Hurricane Melissa [October 2025] taught us a lesson. And that lesson is that we can’t rebuild what was before the disaster. We have to rebuild what should have been before the disaster. We have to rebuild better than what existed before the disaster; otherwise, we are merely inviting the destruction of what existed before the disaster,” he said.

“So in taking on this mammoth project of the Kingston Harbour Walk, it is not our intention to be marginal, incremental, unambitious, safe, cheap. I’m not saying we’re going to be expensive, but…we must, as a nation, build,” said Holness.

Led by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and framed as a world-class public waterfront, the Kingston Harbour Walk is planned as a continuous 25-kilometre climate-resilient promenade running from downtown Kingston to Port Royal. It is expected to serve 16 communities and more than 660,000 people.

Work on waterfront upgrades is already in motion, with the first phase centred on improving the downtown Kingston waterfront through a partnership involving the UDC, the Social Investment Fund and World Bank financing.

Holness said the signing of the consultancy contract, valued at US$3,447,315, marks an essential early move toward reshaping not only the capital but Jamaica more broadly.

“The Hermitage Dam was built somewhere in 1919 [between 1924 and 1927] or thereabouts. The Hermitage Dam is almost 100 years old. We have not built another project like that, that was built under the colonial era. Flat bridge — what always surprises me is whenever the weather channels are showing Jamaica during a hurricane, [it’s] the only iconic thing they can find to show that was built in the colonial era in the 1800s. The Mona Dam [is] an 80-year-old facility. Our generation must embrace infrastructure and build big infrastructure. We must not be afraid of building infrastructure,” he said.