St. Thomas Residents Upbeat About Parish’s Future

As the St. Thomas segment of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) moves into the final stages, residents are excited about the prospects it will bring for the long-awaited transformation of the parish.

They are hopeful that the road project will create opportunities for new business and new jobs, and open up areas for development.

JIS News toured sections of the parish recently and observed areas where the project, which began in January 2017, is being actively implemented.

Construction of the SCHIP is being executed in three parts, with the St. Thomas leg forming two of the three parts.

The first tranche, which includes Morant Bay, Long Road and two roads from Cedar Valley to Portland, are expected to be completed this year, so, too, the Harbour View to Yallahs road, which falls under the second part of the project.

Already, there are several newly asphalted roads, which are giving residents a much-needed relief and providing the clearest indication yet that better and brighter days are ahead for the parish.

Cedar Valley’s Paul Webb, who says he is a frequent user of the road, was not shy to put on record his satisfaction with the major development taking place in the parish.

“The progress is a good thing, no doubt about that. We have never had this before. I am 40 years old and I have never seen this in St. Thomas. You might see some patching, but you never see roadworks like building a road,” Mr. Webb says.

He notes that while the project has caused some inconvenience for residents, he understands that a degree of discomfort is associated with any major development.

“If you are doing some refurbishing on your house, you know that leaking will take place. You will also have to sweep up dust as the owner of the house because the workmen are doing their job [and] you just have to work with it,” Mr. Webb reasons.

Like Mr. Webb, Albion resident, Denise Miller, who is the proprietress of East Fruit Smoothies, which is located along a major section of the highway project, speaks highly of the development and is upbeat about the future of St. Thomas.

“The road development will bring a lot of progress to this parish, which people have always said is backward and not going anywhere and we get the last of everything,” she tells JIS News.

She adds that “the roads will provide easier access in and out of the parish”, as she explains that location is a key factor for the survival of businesses like hers.

“For my business, location is important because coming in from Kingston, you want to stop and refresh yourself before moving on. The roads, as a means of transportation, will bring a flow of everything and make a massive improvement,” she predicts.

Also upbeat about the development prospects for St. Thomas is Environmentalist and Yallahs resident, Alfred Singh.

“I am very much happy to know that the road is coming to St. Thomas and that development is coming here,” he tells JIS News.

He notes that he is looking forward to the parish fully tapping into its vast eco-tourism potential, once the highway project is complete.

“We have the best parish inna Jamaica, the greenest one… and because of that, we must go for ecological tourism. We have a lot here to offer; our beaches are untouched. Let us welcome the development, but it must be environmentally sensible,” he expresses.

Mr. Singh offered a hearty “bravo” to the parties responsible for the highway project, pointing out that, “the truth is, this is very good for the parish”.

The eastern end of the SCHP includes a 17.4 kilometre (km), four-lane roadway from Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge, which is 87 per cent complete with practical completion scheduled for April 2023.

It also includes the rehabilitation and resurfacing of 123.65 km of existing roadway from Yallahs Bridge to Port Antonio and Morant Bay to Cedar Valley broken down in 15 subproject packages.

Ten of these packages, currently under way, are in various stages of completion, and are expected to conclude in December 2023.

The final five packages are scheduled to commence in 2023/24 and are expected to be completed in March 2025.

Overall, the redevelopment of St. Thomas is a major focus of the Government.

In many of his visits to the parish, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has explained the strategic way in which the highway project is being implemented and the context of the development.

Speaking during the opening of the new Yallahs Fire Station last October, Mr. Holness explained “we made a decision that instead of building a new road on a totally new alignment, which would be going through the hills, we would seek, as much as possible to develop the existing road, change the alignment, put in water, make provision for Internet and other important road infrastructure”.

He said that the existing roadway was not built to carry the volume of traffic it was experiencing, noting that there were no planned communities around the road when it was built.

These “unplanned developments”, he pointed out, are commonly without sewer and water infrastructure and places a restriction on the full development of St. Thomas. “Your Government is undertaking a massive redevelopment in the parish”.

Acknowledging that the project has caused some disruptions, the Prime Minister appealed to the residents for understanding and assured that at the end of the day, in terms of their welfare and well-being, they “will be much better off”.

“I ask for pardon while we make progress, but we should never forget that we are involved in a long struggle for development. Let us be balanced and let us look at the entirety of the situation,” he urged.

Speaking in his Budget Debate presentation on Thursday (March 16), the Prime Minister said that the Government continues to examine the progress of the project with a view to making changes for better execution.

He contended that the road development project is the largest public investment in St. Thomas since the Morant Bay Rebellion.

He informed that through the CHASE Fund, a museum will be built in Morant Bay to ensure that current and future generations are rooted and grounded in the knowledge of the parish’s rich cultural and historical heritage.

“It is the intention of this Government to develop the full potential of the parish of St. Thomas,” the Prime Minister said.

The SCHIP is being implemented by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, with co-funding from the Government of Jamaica and China EX-IM Bank.

The objective of the project is to improve the alignment and capacity of the existing southern coastal main arterial road, to make it safe and efficient, free from flooding and provide for future development.

For the 2023/24 fiscal year, an allocation of $22.1 billion has been made to continue the implementation. In addition, some $5.2 billion has been estimated for fiscal year 2024/2025, if necessary.