$500 million in roadwork to get under way in St James East Central
Published:Tuesday | October 22, 2024 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, the member of parliament for St James East Central, has announced an ambitious $500-million road- rehabilitation project for his constituency, which should result in several communities having much better roads for Christmas.
Addressing last Thursday’s official opening of the Adelphi Health Centre in Adelphi, St James, Bartlett said roads such as the Chelsea to Hampden main road, the Kent to Adelphi roadway, and the Somerton main road are all slated for major repairs.
“I am here to tell you that we now have a full allocation of half a billion Jamaican dollars to deal with the roads within our area,” declared Bartlett. “For this main road from Chelsea to Hampden, we have $200 million to ensure that it is properly serviceable. It will really cost $1 billion-plus to give it the development that we want, but for now, we are going to be doing extensive sheet patching to enable serviceable areas across every element of the road from here to Hampden.”
“We are doing a full-scale patching of the Kent to Adelphi roadway, and we have allocated resources under REACH [the Government’s $3-billion REACH Road Rehabilitation Programme] for Somerton. The Rural Agricultural Development Authority is also providing $60 million for four roads in the area, and we have $150 million for SPARK [the $40-billion Shared Prosperity Through Accelerated Improvement Programme]. The SPARK roads are going to begin during this period leading up to Christmas,” continued Bartlett.
“I am not calling out the names of those roads because any road that I miss is a problem, but we are only saying that provision is made for them,” he added.
According to Bartlett, the recent inclement weather, combined with the geographical layout of sections of St James East Central, has contributed significantly to the deterioration of several roadways in the constituency.
“We have had a really difficult problem managing the infrastructure and the level of deterioration that has happened, particularly with our road network, as a result of the weather, and we really have had adverse weather conditions. Every time that I fix the Fording roadway, the next shower of rain comes and damages it, and it is not because of poor construction, but it is because of the topography of the place,” said Bartlett.
“The fact is that the mountain is there in the area, and the river runs next to it, and the full vegetation is there, and when all of that humus [dark organic matter in soil which is formed by decomposed plant and animal matter] drops on the asphalt, it deteriorates the area and causes problems. When concrete is there, then we are satisfied it will be kept,” added Bartlett.
Residents of St James have mounted roadblocks in the parish in recent years due to poor road conditions, including in communities such as Johns Hall, Hurlock, Spring Mount, and Friendship.
During the most recent monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon called for the Bureau of Standards Jamaica to do research on why Jamaica’s roads are deteriorating at such a rapid rate and whether using alternative construction methods would not be better.