Works Ministry to Assess Road Damage in North West St. Andrew

The Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing is to carry out an assessment of damage to roads, drains, gullies in several North West St. Andrew communities, to determine the extent of repairs required.

State Minister, Hon. Richard Azan, made the disclosure to journalists after he and officers from the Ministry toured sections of the constituency on Monday, April 13, with Member of Parliament, Derrick Smith.

Mr. Azan expressed the hope that the Ministry’s technical team will be able to conduct the exercise, and prepare and submit the estimates for repairs by next week, “to see what solutions we can come up with.”

Among the critical areas are breakaways at the Roehampton gully in Havendale and the Perkins gully, adjoining Pembroke Hall; and damage to roads and drains in Meadowbrook, Queen Hill, and other areas, resulting from flood rains over the last six years.

Mr. Smith noted that the breakaways, in particular, pose serious threats to personal property, noting that one house has already been lost.

“Without early and immediate repairs to many of these (breakaways), we are going to lose some more homes. (Additionally) some of the roads are going to break, and we are going to lose some (of them),” he lamented.

Mr. Smith said he does not expect that all the repairs will be done at once, but that the critical areas will be prioritised by the Ministry for immediate action.

Mr. Azan, while pointing out that all of the damaged areas will be prioritised, noted that “(there) are (at least) two of them that are quite serious” where “the owners have had to move out of their houses.”

“I understand (that) when you build a house and (a) gully is taking away a part of your property that it is of great concern. You will therefore understand that those are priority to me,” the State Minister said.

He said the Ministry will need to ascertain the extent of funding at its disposal this year, to determine how best to proceed.