Sweet relief as Gordon Town road brand new
Published:Monday | September 13, 2021 | 12:09 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
After 10 months, the Gordon Town main road in St Andrew has been fully reopened to vehicular traffic, bringing relief to residents who hassled to travel to work and move goods and construction material to their homes.
Cabinet approved a $187-million contract to fix the section of the roadway that collapsed after heavy rains associated with Hurricane Eta last November.
Norman Rookwood, 73, no longer has to park his car below the breakaway and walk the remainder of the journey home.
The retiree had been doing additions to his home a few minutes away from Gordon Town Square prior to the road damage.
“I had to stop because it cost a lot in terms of transportation. Usually, the transport from the hardware would carry the material straight to the site. I had to pay for transportation to the breakaway and pay again for people to move it to the building site,” he recounted.
That situation increased transportation costs by 20 per cent – a hike he could not absorb for too long.
“This is a tremendous relief. It has been a long time, and I am happy they were able to carry out repairs before the one-year mark,” Rookwood added.
Jermaine Ferguson said that he appreciated the work that has been done but pleaded with the National Works Agency to conduct further assessments in the area.
Ferguson pointed The Gleaner to a section of road below Mission House Basic School that he believes needs to be fixed immediately.
“They need to get the engineers to go down in the river to check the undermining of the road because that sink right there, there was a hole there. The road is cracked and it’s now sinking again,” Ferguson lamented.
“If this breaks away, it will cut off people who live in Penfield.”
Reflecting on the last 10 months, Ferguson said that he had adjusted to the inconvenience of walking the distance to and from his parked vehicle as it was not feasible to drive the alternative route through Savage Pen.
A resident of Penfield, Tina Arnold, said she was pleased with the progress made since the contract was approved in February.
“I struggled with load and sometimes I had to wait very long to get someone to help me or to get a taxi. I am very glad that it’s open now,” said the 47-year-old.
“We are very thankful that the road is open. They did a very good job, and we appreciate it,” said Norman Martin.
The 63-year-old told The Gleaner that he is happy that the days of paying additional fare are over, especially given the impact of COVID-19 on earnings.
Meanwhile, a man who gave his name only as Gauntlett could hardly wait for things to return to normal, as he will be able to slash his expenses.
“It’s a joy to me. It took a lot out of me to do the extra walking. When mi buy a likkle material fi work pan mi house, it cost me nuff fi bring it up and we are the poorer class of people,” he said.
Another resident, Lexington Watson, said that there was a small increase in the price of goods at shops and mini-marts in the area as operators had to fork out more money for delivery.
“I feel very good that the road has been fixed. Too much accident up di hill at Savage Pen, and every minute, vehicle turn over. That road is very slippery, especially when it is damp, and yuh cyah come down wid no load on di truck,” he recalled.