Possibility of new road from Stony Hill to Junction

With the construction of the Junction main road in St Mary proving to be a real challenge, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that a new corridor could be constructed, so as to replace the old road network, which he said has out grown its use.

Holness, who was addressing firefighters and other stakeholders last Friday during the official opening of the Port Maria Fire Station in St Mary, pointed out that the roadway leading from Junction in St Mary into St Andrew is one of the most treacherous area, and that there is now a definite need to make way for a new kind of road construction.

“As I drove here coming from Kingston through Stony Hill, I felt every pothole on the road. As I’m driving through, people are waving, because they see the car and they know it’s the prime minister,” Holness said.

According to Holness, the people waved at the vehicles having realised that it was him passing through, but that as they waved, they also pointed their fingers down, so as to indicate that the roadway was in a bad way and is in need of immediate attention.

MADE INVESTMENTS

“So we did make some investments in repairing a part of the (Junction) road. It is a treacherous area to work in because of the soil type. And what it would require to do the entire stretch to build it in such a way that it guard against all the potential risks of slippage, both from the hillside and to the riverside, would be a massive expenditure.

“So what we are now doing is trying to identify a new partner, because it may be that we have to build a entire new stretch of road to connect coming from Stony Hill (St Andrew), using the same – maybe directions in pathway, but not the same alignment. So we may have to do some changes there. The road has outlived its useful life. So we are examining alternatives as to how we can solve it,“ he added.

According to the prime minister, the same kind of investment that has been made on the South Coast Highway Improvement Project from Harbour View to Port Antonio will have to be replicated along the corridor leading from Stony Hill in St Andrew to St Mary.

So far, the Government has spent over $600 million since 2017 as a part of major road improvement project along the Junction main road in St Mary, which remains incomplete, despite several deadlines given for its completion.