Residents take wait-and-see approach as $169m set aside for Troy bridge in Budget
Published:Friday | February 16, 2024 | 12:13 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Although the government has budgeted $169 million for the reconstruction of the Troy bridge in the next financial year, residents of the Trelawny community are wary after “so many false promises” since the original structure collapsed in August 2021.
The allocation was revealed in the 2024-2025 Estimates of Expenditure, which was tabled in the House on Thursday as the new parliamentary year got under way.
The project, which will be managed by the National Works Agency (NWA), is projected to be almost halfway completed by March 2025.
Stephen Shaw, communications manager at the NWA, told The Gleaner that a contractor for the project has been recommended after the tenders were reviewed a few weeks ago.
“The intention is to, hopefully, get it moved quickly through the process to ultimately get to Cabinet for a decision to be made in terms of an award of contract,” he said.
The original bridge, which spanned the Hector’s River and connected Oxford in Manchester North Western to Troy in Trelawny Southern, collapsed during the passage of Tropical Storm Grace two and a half years ago, displacing hundreds of students, motorists, and residents.
The single-lane structure, which was built in 1869, will be replaced by a two-lane bridge with pedestrian sidewalks and signage.
But while the disclosure is welcoming for Troy Basic School Principal Paula Brown, she is being cautiously optimistic.
“We have heard that (that they will soon start construction) over and over again and it has not been done, so I am wondering if it’s just an election prank now that they’re saying that again. If it is true, then we would be very happy. We would be elated,” she told The Gleaner on Thursday evening.
She said that residents of the community have received “so many false promises” over the last two years, leaving them frustrated.
Brown lamented that the lack of a bridge in the community has caused her school’s population to dwindle over the last two years. She said more than 100 students attended school prior to the collapse; however, that number has been reduced to about 60 students.
A makeshift footbridge to cross the river has also caused anxiety.
“Our numbers went down because a lot of the children from across the bridge, they are small and the parents won’t allow them to come across and the parents are afraid to go ‘cause, you know, when the river comes down it’s very … it’s awful. It’s very frightful and dangerous,” Brown said.
Opposition Spokesman on Transport and Member of Parliament for North West Manchester, Mikael Phillips, who has been advocating for the reconstruction of the bridge since its collapse, told The Gleaner that news that a contractor has been identified is welcomed.
“It is now to see how long it will take from awarding the contract to the implementation or the start of the project. Let’s hope that it doesn’t take another six months to get to that point, because, as I made aware ... that the residents themselves had put up a temporary bridge, which is also putting them in danger,” he said.
Phillips noted that the government has been having challenges securing a contractor who can put forward the bond required for such a project, which had resulted in delays. Additionally, he said that the location of the bridge also made it difficult to find a contractor.
“I know for a fact that there are contractors that did not bid on it, because of the location of the bridge and the equipment that will be needed to construct the bridge. So let’s wait and see before we get excited,” he said.
Phillips, in the meantime, expressed disappointment that the $1.3 billion earmarked for bridge repairs and maintenance in the 2023-2024 Budget was not utilised.
He noted that there are more than 30 bridges in a similar state as Troy bridge, and many others in need of maintenance.
“I hope that the government plans to still move ahead with the expenditure they had in last year’s Budget into this year’s Budget, to do some maintenance of our bridges,” he added.