Residents of White Hill, St Andrew, continue to face challenges as they say ongoing road construction efforts are yet to provide a lasting solution to the community’s transportation woes.
In response, Acting Minister of Transport, Works and Maintenance Dr Romel Springer is asking for residents to continue to exercise patience.
Despite significant Government investment, the combination of rainfall and unstable terrain continues to disrupt daily life for those living in the area.
“We are back to square one because you can’t get out,” said White Hill resident Alison Branch-Jemmott. “The only day we would manage to get out is if we have a sunny day. If the rain falls, there’s no getting out.”
The ongoing construction of a new road, while initially promising, has brought its own set of complications for residents.
“We are struggling now. Despite all the money that Government put in this road, we still ain’t get nowhere yet,” Branch-Jemmott said.
The situation has become particularly precarious during rainfall, with residents reporting dangerous driving conditions. The upset resident recounted a frightening incident involving her daughter.
“My daughter was driving home a night and when she got on the hill, the car was dancing and veering off into the gully,” she said.
Branch-Jemmott noted that only by switching to “low range” did her daughter maintain control of the vehicle, preventing a potential disaster. Her daughter Destinee expressed frustration with the project’s pace.
“The length of time that it’s taking is frustrating because as long as the rain falls, this road is impassable because it’s very slippery because of all the mud that is washed up,” she said.
No communication
She also mentioned there had been no communication since the paving of the lower section of the road.
Springer, Member of Parliament for the area, said he empathised with the residents and urged them to proceed with caution along the section of road still under repair. He explained it was not truly open for traffic.
“The road is a work site; it’s not actually open. We allow people to use the road because it’s convenient for persons to use it but the area being referred to as muddy and slippery is still an active construction site that has never been officially opened,” he said.
Springer said the Government recognised the long drive it would take to access White Hill from the other side so they allowed through traffic across the construction zone. However, he said it was imperative that drivers exercised extreme care.
“This is a convenience that we have done for the community to allow them to get in and out a lot faster. But in actual fact, it’s an active work site with heavy equipment working there. We could close it off until we finish, but then people would have to drive all the way around.
“People sometimes open the barricade and drive through because to close it off entirely would be such an inconvenience to the community, that many times people just put the barricades on one side and drive through
but when it rains, because the road is not paved, it becomes difficult to traverse,” he said.
Bear with the work
As such, Springer asked White Hill residents to bear with the work until marl was placed on the section of road and paved. He said there were some challenges but the work was continuing.
“We’ve had some rains, a lot of rains this year, but we still try to get in there and work in those conditions, which are not ideal, as best as we can,” he said.
These latest accounts follow previous concerns raised by residents about mud and gravel washing onto their properties from the road construction site. On a prior visit by the Sunday Sun team, residents highlighted similar issues, with some describing their properties as “swamp-like” after rainfall.
The situation has particularly affected properties beneath the construction area. Branch-Jemmott described the condition under her house as “like a quicksand swamp because so much mud is rushing down the hill when the rain falls”.
Chinese construction company COMPLANT was granted permission to proceed with gabion work, aimed at addressing these issues.
However, Branch-Jemmott, drawing from her experience in her former residence at Springvale, suggested that reinforcing the old road with gabions might have been a more effective solution.
“When the gabions were built deep within the gully and they strengthened the road, it helped to reduce the slippage that was occurring in that area,” she said.
The project, which began over a decade ago following the collapse of the main road in this landslip-prone Scotland District community, remains incomplete. Previous attempts to reinstate the road were unsuccessful, leaving residents in what Branch-Jemmott describes as being “between a rock and a really hard place”.
When contacted, chief executive officer of Haigh Communications, Joy-Ann Haigh, who handles public relations for COMPLANT, thanked the residents for their patience and assured them the work should come to an end within a few months, weather permitting.
“Given the unpredictable weather, it’s difficult to give exact timelines. However, we are aiming to complete within the first quarter of 2025, providing all goes to plan. The residents have been extremely patient for the most part, and we do understand their frustration from time to time,” she said. (DS/CA)
