Construction has begun on a new cruise terminal in Falmouth, Jamaica.
Completion is scheduled for March 2010, in time to accommodate the first port call for Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas.
When completed, the port simultaneously will be able to accommodate two ships the size of the Oasis, a 220,000-ton ship with a 5,400-passenger capacity.
Jamaica's government and Royal Caribbean signed a $224 million contract in 2008 to modernize the cruise ship pier on Jamaica’s north coast. Jamaica will pay $122 million, an amount earmarked for dredging the harbor and constructing the new pier.
The remaining $102 million will cover infrastructure in and around the cruise pier, including renovation of historic buildings and the development of a trolley route.
Falmouth was a colonial center of Jamaica’s sugar and rum industries.