Breakaway blues threaten Mount Vernon Gap

Seventy-six-year-old Gladstone Grant, whose vision is clouded by cataracts, has found the night-time trip along the Mount Vernon Gap breakaway in St Thomas particularly challenging.

Since the roadway crumbled under the weight of torrential rain approximately three years ago, pedestrians and motorists continue to risk the journey along the narrow corridor that has been left behind.

“Me nearly drop over the wall right up at the light post deh. A God save me! Me drop pon me bottom,” said the senior citizen, adding that he has had to depend on the support of a niece and fellow resident.

The breakaway has also irked returning residents who have made investments in the community, Grant said.

Besides the road woes, residents have also not been able to access running water for more than 30 years.

They claimed that they have to purchase water for between $700 and $1,500 per drum, depending on the time of the year.

“You see like how the road bad now, when we a buy water, dem charge more,” Karlene Crossdale told The Gleaner Wednesday.

In other instances, locals have had to depend on rainfall to fill buckets and drums and to water their crops.

Coffee and vegetable farmers are also gravely affected by their inability to travel frequently to and from the market with their produce.

According to Tamar Patterson-Thompson, the road is continually eroded by rainfall, increasing the fears of locals that they may one day be marooned.

“When rain a fall, we fret ‘cause we nuh know weh tomorrow a go bring,” she said.

Patterson-Thompson has observed the narrowing of the roadway over time. Taxis, he said, might eventually stop travelling to sections of the community.

“A manpower make the vehicle dem can pass,” Patterson-Thompson said.

Residents had face-to-face discussions with St Thomas Western Member of Parliament James Robertson as well as Everald Warmington, the de facto minister of works, on Wednesday. They toured various road networks in 22 districts throughout the constituency.

In an address to journalists, Robertson stated that the tour explored some of the “most difficult terrain areas in Jamaica”.

The tour began at Albion and wended its way through to Llandewey, Easington to River Head, through to Richmond Vale and Richmond Gap, Albion Mountain Crossing to Mount Vernon Gap, Bethel to Ness Castle, Hagley Gap to Penlyne Castle, and Morganville to the Mahogany Vale bridge.

Warmington said that there are six breakaways from Mount Vernon Gap to the neighbouring constituency of St Andrew East Rural, which is represented by Member of Parliament Juliet Holness.

The minister without portfolio, who works out of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, said that he had instructed that all six breakaways be scoped. Designs for three of the locations have already been completed.

The additional designs had been scheduled to be completed by the end of October so that work could begin on the following phase, Warmington said.

Warmington said that the Mount Vernon Gap breakaway requires immediate action. He suggested that the road be widened by narrowing the embankment.

“All of us had a warm time coming through here. You have to be a good driver to really get through that breakaway, so the next step is to cut the hillside to make sure that we have wider space for vehicles to drive,” he added.

The tour was geared at examining the condition of roadways leading up to the Blue Mountains.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com