Access to All Main Roads

Over the past two weeks, the National Works Agency (NWA) has cleared and provided access to all of the island’s main roads, and most of the B and C roads.

Speaking with JIS News, Petra-kene Williams, Senior Communication Officer at the NWA disclosed that the agency received 1,249 complaints regarding blocked roads or in some instances, breakaways and also retaining walls or other structures that have been damaged by Hurricane Ivan.

Of that number, the NWA has provided access to 1,039 roads island wide. Some 571 roads have been completely cleared, while 468 roads have been cleared for single-lane access.

“The total number of A (arterial) roads cleared is 94; the total number of B roads (roads that link major towns) is 73; the total number of C roads (roads leading to smaller communities), is 495, and the number of Parish Council roads is 590,” said Colin Morrison, Community Relations Officer at the NWA.

In spite of this accomplishment, there are still some communities, where inundation or breakaways have restricted access to those roadways. Some of these are in Westphalia and Pen Line Castle in rural St. Andrew, Norwood and Douglas Castle in St. Ann.

In St. Elizabeth, Ginger Hill to Pisgah main road and Sandy River to Macknie (via Rhoden Hall) road in Clarendon are still not accessible. The NWA is working assiduously to rectify the situation.

“We have a team working in Clarendon on the Sandy River to Macknie (via Rhoden Hall) road, to effect emergency repairs and re-open access to the affected communities,” Miss Williams told JIS News.

The agency has also been working to provide access to the Parish Council roads and communities in rural Jamaica. “Over 90 per cent of these roads are now open to vehicular traffic,” Miss Williams informed.

She is advising the public that even though the roadways have been re-opened, some of them are only open to single-lane traffic, so “motorists still have to proceed with caution”.