Roads have to be repaired quickly: Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Everald Warmington, says continuous rain and heavy flooding have done structural damage to roadways across the island that will have to be addressed expeditiously.
The Minister, who toured sections of St. Elizabeth and Southern St. James with a delegation of Government Ministers and members of the National Works Agency (NWA) on November 25, said now that the rain has somewhat subsided, a critical assessment is being made as to the extent of the damage, with the hope that work can commence quickly in a number of areas.
“The main problem was that the rain was falling continuously where it wasn’t possible to do a comprehensive survey of the damage. This tour today from Ginger Hill in St. Elizabeth and which will take us to Mocho and other areas in Southern St. James, is to help us to get a fuller picture of the damage,” he noted.
The Minister further said that he is cognisant that motorists and commuters have been finding a number of roadways in certain parishes hard to traverse. He adds that the NWA is already in mobilisation mode and ready to deal with repairs.
“We had started a survey to come up with a programme to deal with potholes and badly damaged roads after the first set of rain. Then the rains started again…forcing us to take a wait and see…so we could get a fuller picture as to the extent of the damage,” Warmington said.
The Minister said he is appealing to motorists to exercise caution while using the roadways, adding that surface conditions have worsened in many areas over the last few weeks
“Today we toured from Mocho to Vaughnsfield…to Welcome Hall…Mount Horeb via Barnett Bush and to Anchovy through Mafoota and to Roehampton, so as to have a better appreciation of the road conditions within the constituency,” Davis noted.
“I have always lobbied for rural development and we have to start somewhere. Transformation of the rural areas can be of significant benefit to the development of a nation,” he added.
