‘A real sore eye’

Residents of Spanish Town, St Catherine, have expressed discontent at the slow pace at which several badly deteriorated roads leading to and through the business district of the Old Capital are being addressed.

Last November, the National Works Agency (NWA) commenced a much-needed road rehabilitation project targeting a segment of Burke Road between King Street and Oxford Road.

A number of locals on Wednesday expressed their disappointment to The Gleaner that the project did not include neighbouring roads that feed into Burke Road, which are also in need of urgent repair.

Spanish Town Mayor Norman Scott admitted that the roadways within the Old Capital have been “a real sore eye” and a long-standing concern for the motoring public.

“I was hoping that it would have gone further on Oxford Road,” he told The Gleaner, noting that there were other sections along the corridor that were in desperate need of attention.

He also pointed to Young Street and William Street, noting that he has been advocating for the NWA to rehabilitate them for quite some time.

Along the intersection of King Street and Barracks Street, large puddles of murky, odorous water made it difficult for pedestrians to cross the already-narrow corridor on Wednesday as cars whizzed past.

A resident, who did not wish to be identified, told The Gleaner that it is often a nerve-racking experience walking in the area as pedestrians fear losing their balance and tumbling into what they believe is sewage settled along the roadway.

As recently as last month, the resident added, a number of persons, including one schoolgirl, fell into the murky water.

“Fi all the Christmas, the place look weird. All up deh so, when rain fall, the whole a up deh so block off [with] water. People can’t even step good. Sometime the place full up a water till some a dem have to walk way ‘round di road,” he said, noting that the alternative routes were longer and inconvenient.

“See me all a walk ya now, me have to a step good ‘cause me nuh want the dutty water splash up pon me,” he added, indicating that there were no proper sidewalks along the corridor.

Overgrown vegetation has added another worry as they fear falling targets to robbers lurking in the bushes,

“The whole a da community here tired a da place ya, to how the place look. It look crawny fi true, man,” he said.

Cyril McKoy said that the state of King Street was shameful.

“It’s so bad, it can’t even talk about and them call it King Street? This a nuh King Street. The name fi change, man, because the king supposed to siddung good inna him throne and look good anywhere him is,” McKoy said.

A female resident also expressed her discontent with the lack of maintenance of the roads in the general area.

“Is from a long long time, so much years since I was a little lady, and now, I reach 60 now and we need it to fix,” she said.

While public transport operators have expressed relief and gratitude for the work done on the once-bumpy artery in and out of the town, they are concerned that inadequate drainage could see all that work going to nought during heavy rains.

“If rain fall, it still a go flood because there is no drainage ... . You can’t fix a road and don’t solve the drainage because when it rains, it a go mash up again, and it a go take one and a half year fi fix again,” said one taxi operator of Burke Road.

He noted that a restaurant in the area takes the biggest hit from the area’s failing drainage and sewage systems as its entrance is often submerged during heavy rains, making it impossible for customers to enter or exit.

Stephen Shaw, manager of communication and customer service at NWA, told The Gleaner that the project, which was contracted for about $33.5 million, was divided into two parts: drainage and repair of Burke Road.

He clarified that the drainage component of the work, with a price tag of approximately $13.5 million, did not involve laying underground pipes or clearing the drains, but rather replacing damaged manhole covers, slabs, and tending to side drains.

“I don’t know that the $13 million would have been able to do everything. At the time when the estimate might have been done, what usually happens is that the team would look at a particular space and then do the estimate based on that. Sometimes other things come up, and we just have to deal with them,” he said.

Shaw said that the drainage aspect was still ongoing and extends from Twickenham Park to the Old Harbour Road roundabout via Burke Road, White Church Street, Oxford Street and Church Street to March Pen Road.

He noted that it wasn’t the case where other roadways weren’t being considered for a more in-depth drainage repair or road restoration, but rather that it was a matter of getting the funding to begin the work.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com