Road Network in the West in Good Shape

There was no severe damage to the road infrastructure in western Jamaica from the passing of Hurricane Dennis on July 7.
Community Relations Officer with the National Works Agency (NWA) in western Jamaica, Stephen Shaw told JIS News that this was achieved through continuous road maintenance by the agency in that part of the island.
He said that except for a few land slippages, which could not have been avoided because of the volume of rainfall over a short period, the road network in the area held out well.
“In St. James, we did not suffer much damage as a result of Dennis. However, what happened was that we had a heavy downpour on Monday, July 12, and that resulted in landslides occurring on several of our main roads in the southern section of the parish,” he said.
Mr. Shaw noted that the affected roads were Johns Hall to Stapleton, Sunderland to Amity Hall, Amity Hall to Kensington and Fairfield to Point. He said that work has been carried out on the Amity Hall to Sunderland, the Johns Hall to Stapleton and the Fairfield to Point roads to allow at least single lane traffic.
“The roadway from Amity Hall to Kensington remains closed, because we have at least two massive breakaways on this particular stretch, and this will require a tremendous amount of work in order to have this particular roadway open to single lane at the first instance,” he said.
He expressed hope that by Friday, July 15, enough work would have been carried out on the Amity Hall to Kensington road to allow at least single lane access by motorists. Mr. Shaw said the main road from Falmouth to Springdale in Trelawny has been inundated with rain since July 8, and there had been a few land slippages between Wait-a-bit and High Gate Hall in that parish. He said that in Westmoreland, a minor landslide also occurred on the Lambs River to Bethel Town main road, while the road in the Lambs River square was flooded.
“All in all I think the west was pretty unscathed following the passage of hurricane Dennis,” he said, adding that this could be as a result of the significant amount of money that was spent by the government over the last three years on improvement and maintenance of the main road network in the west.
He urged motorists to travel with extreme caution on all these roadways, as the NWA was working to keep affected roads open to even one lane traffic.