Woodsville residents seek answers about collapsed bridge

WESTERN BUREAU:

While another bridge in Jamaica has fallen, residents of Woodsville in rural Hanover are still awaiting word on when, if ever, the collapsed bridge that connects their community to other districts in Hanover and Westmoreland will be replaced.

The latest bridge to collapse in the country is the Craigmill Bridge in Portland, which had been designated closed for some time now. However, residents continued to use it in the interest of their daily survival.

For Woodsville, it is the same situation, just a different district and parish. The Woodsville bridge was declared closed for over a year, from April 2022 to April 2023, before it finally collapsed following continued use by residents of that area.

However, even though announcements have been made about works to restore Craigmill Bridge in the near future, residents of Woodsville claim that it has been over one year since they have had any update regarding the replacement of the bridge in their community.

‘Doing what is necessary’

“It is our lives, and in the interest of our survival we have to be doing what is necessary to make our lives comfortable,” Sasha-Gay Frazer, president of the Woodsville Community Development Committee (CDC), told The Gleaner.

“We have not gotten any word from anyone from the last time, several months ago, when we got word from the Member of Parliament (MP) Dave Brown, when he stated that there are some funds in place for work on the bridge,” Frazer stated.

“We do not know where the process is, we do not know what the process entails. What I do know from my own research is that soil testing was done in the vicinity of the collapsed bridge, and we know that the National Works Agency (NWA) has done some draft of the architectural part of it, which is to go to tender.

“So from what I know there is tender, drafting, soil testing and money in place, I do not know what else is missing from the process as we are not getting any update,” she informed.

Woodsville’s CDC president explained that the community decided to help itself by building a wooden bridge where the original bridge spans the Cabarita River, which is used by all for day-to-day commute.

“We have been constantly using that makeshift wooden bridge that we built as a community, which we repair from time to time,” she explained, adding that the bridge is now in need of repairs as the last time the community did some work on it was in July.

“Now some part of it is up for repairs again, we have to organise a community workday and get that work done. We usually plan workdays, we cut the needed lumber, transport them to the location through creative ways as we do not have a crane or other heavy-duty equipment. We then get the work done as we are the ones feeling the pressure,” she emphasised.

Frazer noted that, for over three years, the community has been suffering economically, socially and educationally, while the health of the many seniors and others is being affected because of the lack of a proper bridge in place to facilitate mobility to and from the district.

When contacted for an update, Brown told The Gleaner that he has not been fully informed about the latest on the Woodsville bridge situation, but promised that he would do some checks and provide an update.

“The last thing I heard is that some redesigning of the draft in place had to be done because it was not perfect,” Brown said.

In April 2024 when Stephen Shaw, NWA communications and customer services manager, was contacted for an update on the planned replacement of the bridge, he said the draft design was complete and that his agency was seeking a pricing by year-end.

“Eight structures have been put on the priority list at a cost of $1.3 billion, and that list does not include Woodsville, as others (bridges) were ahead with procurement already on the way,” Shaw said at the time.

Following the recent collapse of Craigmill Bridge, it has been reported in The Gleaner that Shaw says the NWA now has six structures on its priority list for replacement, inclusive of the Craigmill Bridge and Troy bridge in Trelawny.

The over 100-year-old Woodsville bridge connects the communities of Woodsville, Hillsbrook, Bath Mountain and Flower Hill to other areas in the parishes of Hanover and Westmoreland.

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