Savage Pen road upgrade delayed – Residents want urgent completion of alternative route to Gordon Town main road as NWA struggles to get job done | News

The overhaul of the alternative route to the breakaway-hit Gordon Town main road has been pushed back by as much as a month because of rains and other technical factors, the country’s chief works czar has said.

Multiple landslides caused by tropical storms in October and November wreaked havoc on the St Andrew East Rural constituency, forcing the closure of a key node of the thoroughfare that added up to two and a half hours to the journey into the city.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness had pledged on December 5 that the Savage Pen road would be ready in three weeks, but residents and other commuters are heartbroken that they will have to endure misery for some time longer.

E.G. Hunter, CEO of the National Works Agency (NWA), said that continual rain has hobbled the project throughout December. He also blamed the soil type and steepness of the road as mitigating factors behind the missed deadline.

“Transporting the materials is very difficult and time-consuming, and the trucks with materials cannot navigate the path, so we have to be building the road to transport the materials to build the road,” Hunter told The Gleaner yesterday.

“A cursory examination of the area made it clear why this is so. The soil type is stiff clay, and neither equipment nor labour could effectively operate in the area whenever it rained.”

Hunter said that safety could not be sacrificed on what residents have labelled a perilous road.

The NWA boss said that the works should be completed by mid-January or month end but added the caveat that inclement weather could further delay the project.

The cost of the roadworks will not breach the initial $60-million bill, he said.

Persons have had to use creative alternative means to get in and out of their communities, including using the steep, underconstruction Savage Pen Road, which they say is very difficult to traverse.

Darren Smiley, 78, a resident of Savage Pen, did not believe that the NWA would have completed the Savage Pen Road in the timeframe given.

“No, it can’t open yet, a whole heapa work. A see them putting on the shingle first, then the marl, and after the marl, the barber green. I am waiting to see because I know dem promise, and I am looking forward to see it finish,” he told The Gleaner.

“If rain fall, the bank will cut, and I want it done before it rains. Once rain fall, this bank going to come off, and once it come off, the graves will be disturbed.”

Another resident, Nerissa Nelson, was also skeptical about the completion timetable.

“I don’t really know. Mi hear like dem say either three weeks’ time or a month time,” she told our news team as she made her way up the steep hill to feed her animals last week.

“We afi manage and have patience and wait because we never have any road, and we glad to see what they are doing. Yuh see through me use to it, it nuh steep to me, but other people will come and say, yes, it steep, but it nuh steep to me. Me born and grow here.”

STEEP CLIMB

Smiley, who has lived in the area for some 60 years, said he was glad for the work being done, admitting that persons had been complaining about the steepness of the climb they face on the Savage Pen Road.

“It’s a little steep, yes, but dem can make it. Some cars know say dem have to drive around and don’t come this way. If is a four-wheel drive, yuh nice, but when rain fall, it slippery fi go down,” he said.

While our news team was in the area last week, we observed some 50 motor vehicles of all sizes having extreme difficulty traversing the unfinished Savage Pen Road, which is reportedly 1.6 kilometres long.

Residents lament the dangers this poses to them as some live right by the roadside.

“I can’t sleep at night time. If something pass at 3 a.m., mi afi wake up. The road make sense, and we glad fi the road, but the safety and privacy is a problem. Right now if dem nuh careful, mi TV can drop off my wall. Man all a drive fast come up the road and lick down all mi goat, enuh. The farm right there, but because the fence afi move, and ting, the kid dem run out,” one resident shared.

DRIVE WITH CAUTION

The residents are begging motorists to take their time to navigate the roadway.

“Di people dem fi tek time drive, enuh. Accident gwan already, enuh, down at the bottom. A bus and a Probox collide. It was rainy time, though, so pure slippage and skid. Dem marl and barber green off the top, so from dem hurry and finish, it should be better,” a resident said.

The Savage Pen residents also shared that efforts by the contractors to widen the road, creating two lanes in some sections, may result in further disruptions to their livelihood.

Motorist Demario ‘Supryze’ Small, who, last week, cautiously made it across a section of the roadway in his SUV, said the authorities should focus on rebuilding the bridge at the Gordon Town breakaway.

The NWA is advising that the only safe and practical alternative route between Gordon Town and the central business district of Kingston and St Andrew is along the Irish Town or Newcastle thoroughfare, which passes through Silver Hill Gap, Content, and Guava Ridge.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com