No digging up - Lucea councillor cautions against water project affecting roads
Published:Saturday | August 17, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator
WESTERN BUREAU:Councillor of the Lucea Division of the Hanover Parish Council, Neville Clare, has cautioned state agencies in the parish to take steps to ensure the National Water Commission's (NWC) upcoming water-supply expansion project does not conflict with future road improvement projects in the parish.
Two Fridays ago, vice-president of water operations at the NWC, Mark Blair, announced that a contract had been signed for a water-transmission project which was to bring water from the Great River Water Supply System in St James to Green Island in Hanover via the town of Lucea.
The project, he said, would ensure a consistent supply of water to Lucea and other sections of western Hanover, as well as ease the water challenges in the resort town of Negril. At the time, he said the project was scheduled to be completed within 18 months.
But Clare told Western Focus that while he welcomed the project, he was somewhat concerned as the proposed works were set to gravely affect a road-resurfacing and rehabilitation project he had undertaken at West Avenue in New Town, Lucea.
"We need to understand that the agencies - the Hanover Parish Council and the National Works Agency (NWA) - need to liaise with NWC that they do as minimal damage as possible to the roads so we don't have to go digging up back the road as will be the case at West Avenue, where we now have to go back to do the repair work."
LONG-OVERDUE PROJECT
Clare added: "It doesn't make any sense. So they have to come together as agencies and know exactly how they move in terms of the projections," Clare said.
The councillor said the project was long overdue and would be a major boost to the lives of the people in western Hanover. However, he predicted traffic disruptions in Lucea during the pipe-laying phase.
"It is a good project and will help the entire area immensly. We have been waiting on that for a long time. They will be putting in a 20-inch main, so you can imagine that all the other distribution lines that come off it will supply the place adequately," said Clare. "That's a major development, and it is good for the town and should solve the major water woes in the Lucea and other adjoining districts," he said.
"There will be major "disturbances" because work crews will have to cut across the town at Willie Delisser Boulevard, on to main street and Mosley Drive and then head down West Avenue," said Clare.
The NWC has said that the water-transmission lines under the project will surpass Lucea and stop at Green Island. It is expected to bring water from the Great River, which is located at the border of Hanover and St James, into the Green Island area, following which the Logwood Water Supply System in Hanover would "predominantly feed the Negril area" and result in adequate water supply during the annual drought period.