As PriceSmart opening looms, traffic fears heighten in Portmore
Published:Monday | January 10, 2022 | 12:10 AMDavid Salmon/Gleaner Writer
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A construction boom in Portmore has triggered calls for an expansion of the road network in the fast-developing St Catherine community. Besides the erection of business process outsourcing centres and other emerging buildings, the impending...
A construction boom in Portmore has triggered calls for an expansion of the road network in the fast-developing St Catherine community.
Besides the erection of business process outsourcing centres and other emerging buildings, the impending opening of the PriceSmart megastore is expected to attract a beeline of traffic that has swamped the main corridor to the shopping club’s only other outlet in Kingston.
Portmore Mayor Leon Thomas has stressed that an overhaul of thoroughfares in the vicinity of the under-construction PriceSmart building was necessary.
“I know that you are going to have increased traffic congestion because as it is right now, we have that problem,” Thomas said in a Gleaner interview on Sunday.
“The plan was for that road to be a four-lane road a couple years ago … . There was a design for the road, and I get to understand that the Government is shelving the plan,” Thomas, who chairs the Portmore Municipal Corporation, said.
The mayor said that residents of the Silver Stone and Portmore Pines communities have difficulty accessing their premises because of traffic pile-ups.
Thomas disclosed that he has written to Everald Warmington, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, and E.G. Hunter, CEO of the National Works Agency, explaining that the pace of development threatens to worsen the congestion.
Efforts Sunday to contact Warmington, who oversees works, and Hunter were unsuccessful.
Braeton Parkway is in need of “immediate” expansion because commuters use the corridor to access the Progressive Grocers supermarket. PriceSmart is expected to add significantly to that capacity.
There is also a proposal for the construction of a tax office in the area.
“There is a lot of development that is coming to the municipality, and we definitely need those major roads to be improved. I know there is a plan afoot to deal with the road from Mandela [Highway] to come into Portmore, but I think that the roads coming to the municipality need to be looked at first,” said Thomas.
Another priority for the mayor is the upgrade of the Hellshire main road to a dual carriageway.
St Catherine Southern Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson also highlighted the pressing need for the upgrade of the Portmore road network.
“The issue of the traffic over there is an issue I have raised with the municipality, the planning officer, the mayor, and I also just late last month had further discussions with the NWA senior management, including Mr Hunter, regarding some proposed infrastructure work to be over there,”
Jackson said that despite having discussions with the NWA, as recent as December, about the expansion of Braeton Parkway and other roadways, he is unaware of any plans for their expansion.
The MP also expressed frustration with the slow pace of the road improvement, saying that he had written to the NWA, as far back as 2019, recommending four sets of corridor upgrades, including Braeton Parkway.
“When I met with the National Works Agency last month, I was informed that they were not going to do that one, which I told them was nonsense … and I wrote Minister Warmington just last week and copied my letter of 2019 to him,” said Jackson.
The lawmaker said that he is currently awaiting a response from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.