All set for toll road repairs
Published:Monday | August 15, 2016 | 3:09 PMChristopher Serju
The clearing of debris from the roadway to facilitate reconstruction work for the replacement of the retaining wall along a section of the North-South Highway between Unity Valley and Treadways, St Catherine, is due to get under way anytime now.
Motorists using that section of the new tollway, which has been reduced to single lane because of a landslide in March, will continue to be inconvenienced for at least another five-to-six months, until the work is completed.
Director of communication in the transport ministry, Vando Palmer, yesterday told The Gleaner that plans are well advanced for the start-up of the corrective measures.
"The design for the reconstruction has been completed and NROCC (National Road Operating and Constructing Company), which would have been the oversight body, had no objections to the design. The Chinese have brought in some engineers to work on it, alongside those who are here, and whatever other local input is needed," he explained.
"I think they have already started to clean up the area in preparation for the reconstruction work. They would have done a tremendous amount of assessment in how to remedy the situation that has occurred there, I think the fault was identified and they now know exactly what to do, and that is why the engineers are here, to spearhead the effort for corrective measures as part of the reconstruction of that area that was collapsed."
Palmer also disclosed that issue of being inconvenienced by the reduction to one lane, which stretches for about two kilometres, was discussed at a meeting with the highway operators on Friday. However, the operators insisted that in the interest of public safety, they would maintain the single lane.
He explained: "We have been told that it is that way as an extreme precaution, to ensure that we don't have any crashes, and the worst thing would have been fatalities. So it will remain for approximately that length of distance in order to ensure that persons who are going to be going through that particular area take all the necessary precautions as possible."