Motorists to benefit from rehabilitated Hanover thoroughfare
Published:Saturday | February 26, 2022 | 12:05 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THOUSAND OF persons who use the roadway that links the parishes of Hanover and Westmoreland, specifically between the Hanover district of Chester Castle and the Westmoreland township of Bethel Town, will be in for a more comfortable ride within a matter of weeks.
This as work has commenced for the rehabilitation of the two kilometres of roadway from the Chester Castle Primary School to the Hanover/ Westmoreland border.
The roadway from Bethel Town to the Westmoreland/Hanover border has been in fairly good condition, as rehabilitation work was earlier carried out on the two kilometres of roadway.
The Gleaner has been informed that a contract for $16,615,900 has been awarded to Brighton Engineers Limited to carry out the rehabilitation work, slated to take some six weeks from commencement.
Checks by The Gleaner has revealed that the mobilisation of heavy duty equipment has taken place, and preparatory work has commenced on the piece of roadway, which is heavily used on a daily basis by travellers between Bethel Town and Montego Bay, St James.
“We doing the bushing and the clearing of the drains along the road first, as all the drains were blocked and need some amount of clearing, otherwise the work to fix the road will not last,” one workman told The Gleaner during a check to see the progress of the work which was slated to commence on Monday, February 21.
Community relations officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), Western Region, Janel Ricketts, told The Gleaner that the scope of work to be carried out entails reshaping and asphalting of a section of the roadway, the installation of kerb and channel drains and the patching of other sections of the roadway.
MAINTENANCE OF SECONDARY ROADS PROGRAMME
“It (the work) is being done under the NWA’s maintenance of secondary roads programme, a programme which speaks to the upgrade of main roads and implementation of several other infrastructural works across the parishes,” she stated.
“Over the last four months, the NWA, through the maintenance of secondary roads programme, has targeted some six critical roadways in Hanover for major improvement, with approximately $147 million devoted to this effort,” Ricketts pointed out.
She named the St Simon to Lances River roadway, Dias to Davis Cove and Mt Carmel to McLaren Gate roadways as already completed, while the Chichester to Golden Grove, Hopewell to Welcome and Cocoon as well as the Chester Castle to the Hanover/Westmoreland border roadway projects are yet to be completed.