Editorial | Where little things matter

There are, this newspaper insists, substantial social and economic returns, often beyond what is immediately discernible, when the State does the right things – and gets them right.

Unfortunately, in Jamaica governments seem to become so overwhelmed with the presumed big policy issues that they miss, and fail to attend to, the basics that affect the quality of people’s lives, leading often to frustration, erosion of trust in government, and sometimes, antisocial behaviour.

The poor management in the build-out of big infrastructure projects and how these shortcomings affect people’s day-to-day lives frequently offer examples of the problem.

The more than US$500 million South Coast Highway project is a case in point. When completed, the highway will provide another route to the island’s eastern parishes of St Thomas and Portland from Kingston. It is possibly the fillip that St Thomas needs to jump-start its development, which has lagged, despite its proximity to Kingston.

Residents of St Thomas understand this. They largely welcome the road, even if it won’t have the number of lanes they initially expected. Yet, over the past three years of construction there has been much angst for residents along its route.

There have been many demonstrations, for reasons ranging from the limiting access to communities, damage to some nearby roads and often, the plague of dust invading people’s homes.

These problems can’t be totally avoided. They might, however, have been mitigated with better planning, taking into account the number of times the National Works Agency (NWA), which oversees the government’s public infrastructure projects, has announced its intervention with the road’s contractor to ensure that issues are addressed.

Solutions have been as simple as frequently sprinkling areas to lessen the rise of dust – a well-known and widely used intervention at construction sites in built-up areas.

SMALL PROJECTS, TOO

But case studies of failing to do, and get right, small things that make a difference aren’t limited to big projects like the southern coastal highway. Small ones that stretch for only tens of metres and ought to cost no more than a few dollars are often major sources of frustration for citizens.

A current example is a simple bit of repair to the roadway at the Benson Ford at Shortwood Road, between Cherry Gardens and Norbrook, in St Andrew, next door to the home of former prime minister PJ Patterson.

More than a fortnight ago, some agency of the government felt it appropriate to start work on extending a concrete bit of the road on the southern side of the ford. That is apparently aimed at extending the few metres of concrete section beyond a grade where it previously intersected with the asphaltic road, on to a level plain. This will perhaps lessen the frequent outbreak of potholes where concrete and asphalt previously met.

It might have been better to do this job while schools were on holiday and traffic on that stretch of road is relatively light. But things are as they are, and ought not to have been.

The work has required reducing that short stretch of road to a single lane. First, the eastern lane was closed. Now it’s the west.

In the mornings, traffic is the heaviest – flowing north to south – from before seven o’clock. Motorists at the back of the lines, from either direction, have no clear view of what is ahead of them. In the absence of wardens to regulate the flow, vehicles regularly meet face-to-face on the open lane, with no easy way around, some drivers often unwilling to retreat.

Regularly tempers flare and heated quarrels ensue. Expletives fly. Happily, the road rage hasn’t, so far, deteriorated to physical violence.

NONSENSE AND ILLOGICAL

The nonsense and illogic of this situation is in fact that there were actually wardens, or people with flags, at either side of construction directing, or rerouting traffic. However, when active construction was being done, the wardens, like the builders, started after the peak traffic period – long after when their presence was vital.

Over the nearly three weeks of the Benson Ford fiasco, hundreds of thousands of productive man hours have been lost, adding to the tens of millions frittered away annually on Jamaica’s roadways because of poor traffic management and an inadequate public transport system that drive many people to private vehicle ownership, at great cost to the country – in terms of the cost of importing the vehicles, the petrol that powers them and the infrastructure that facilitates their operation.

Clearly, the experiences of the residents of St Thomas and the road users heading into Benson Ford negatively impact their sense of well-being, which could have been avoided with sensible planning. Indeed, it would be bad enough if these indignities were the only examples of people’s frustrations, but situations similar to them, and worse, are replicated daily across Jamaica.

In the event, we again commend this to Prime Minister Andrew Holness as part of his legacy building project: as he does the big stuff, he must also concentrate on the little things and get them right. That’s part of building an efficient, kinder and gentler Jamaica.