Lucea main road to be repaired ... again

Quick-fix solution to ease daily traffic congestion

WESTERN BUREAU:

A mere three months after a section of the pothole-riddled Lucea main road, in Hanover, was fixed, another contract has been signed for fresh repair work as it is now back to its former state following recent rains.

Tamika Davis, the member of Parliament for Hanover Western, said the repairs, which will commence within days, will help to reduce the daily congestion in the town.

This as traffic is regularly reduced to a crawl as motorists struggle to navigate the potholes.

She expressed her support for the quick repairs, but suggested that a longer-term strategy be crafted to ensure the durability of the roadways.

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“We need a long-term fix for Seawall. My focus is not on the quick fix, my conversation really is on how we can ensure that when we fix it, it is more lasting.”

“Next week, it will be patched again. It does not make me comfortable, to be very honest, because I know that shortly thereafter, we are going to see the same problems. So what I have invited the NWA technical team to do is to devise a long-term solution,” she said. She expressed confidence, however, that, before long, several roadways in Western Hanover will be fixed under the REACH and SPARK programmes.

Efforts by The Gleaner to ascertain the cost of the newest contract, and the total sum which was spent three months ago, were unsuccessful as Davis did not provide that information.

Over recent months, motorists using the heavily trafficked roadway between Montego Bay and Negril have complained about the time it takes to get from one resort town to the other due to the poor state of the roads.

“At some places, what should be a five to 10-minute drive, it is taking up to one hour to traverse because of the bad road conditions, and in times of adverse weather, you can almost double that time,” a motorists told The Gleaner. “The 400 metres of roadway (Seawall Drive) dubbed Main Street Lucea, from ‘Keep Left” to the Lucea town centre, is all potholes.”

At the most recent monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation, Superintendent Andrew Nish, the police commander for Hanover, pleaded with the authorities to fix the roads, saying it was (negatively) impacting the police’s crime-fighting duties and hurting traffic management.