Jericho wants dug-up roads repaired after pipe-laying project
Published:Tuesday | February 15, 2022 | 12:06 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
RESIDENTS OF Jericho in eastern Hanover are peeved at the length of time it is taking to repair roads in their community which have been dug up to lay pipelines under a water-distribution project.
It has been several months since the road from the Jericho Square to Cove and another from Jericho Square to Kew Bridge have been dug up to lay mains to transmit potable water to households within the area under a major water supply and distribution system upgrade.
The $400-million project, which was commissioned into service in August 2020, is aimed at providing the commodity to some 5,000 residents.
With the Claremont to Jericho leg of the distribution being the first phase of the project, problems have arisen about the promptness and efficiency with which that aspect of the upgrading works is being implemented.
“They are putting in the pipelines across the community (Jericho). [The] NWC (National Water Commission) told me that it is actually Rural Water [Supply Limited] that is basically doing the project; so they have dug the roadway, put the pipelines in them, but they have not covered the lines. So because of the heavy rainfall over the period, it has dug out the entire area; so we have very deep areas where those lines are,” Andria Dehaney-Grant, councillor for the Sandy Bay division in which the Jericho area falls, told The Gleaner.
Dehaney-Grant expressed concern for the safety of motorists and pedestrians who traverse the roads within the community, especially during the night-time.
She said that she has contacted both the NWC and Rural Water – which are both government-owned – about the situation, but no corrective action has been taken to date.
Several residents also told The Gleaner that several of the pipes are also leaking at the points where connections have been made to service the homes in the area.
“The distribution pipes were not covered properly, so during the last rainy period that we had in the latter part of last year, the Kew road and part of the Cove road were both badly damaged,” one resident said.
When contacted, Hanover Eastern Member of Parliament Dave Brown said that he is aware of the situation in Jericho, adding that moves are now afoot to correct it. He said that a new contractor will be engaged to carry out that project soon.