White Hill, St Andrew Residents Facing Transportation Woes Amid Ongoing Road Construction Efforts

“This is a convenience that we have done for the community to allow them to get in and out a lot faster. But in actual fact, it’s an active work site with heavy equipment working there. We could close it off until we finish, but then people would have to drive all the way around.

“People sometimes open the barricade and drive through because to close it off entirely would be such an inconvenience to the community, that many times people just put the barricades on one side and drive through

but when it rains, because the road is not paved, it becomes difficult to traverse,” he said.

Bear with the work

As such, Springer asked White Hill residents to bear with the work until marl was placed on the section of road and paved. He said there were some challenges but the work was continuing.

“We’ve had some rains, a lot of rains this year, but we still try to get in there and work in those conditions, which are not ideal, as best as we can,” he said.

These latest accounts follow previous concerns raised by residents about mud and gravel washing onto their properties from the road construction site. On a prior visit by the Sunday Sun team, residents highlighted similar issues, with some describing their properties as “swamp-like” after rainfall.

The situation has particularly affected properties beneath the construction area. Branch-Jemmott described the condition under her house as “like a quicksand swamp because so much mud is rushing down the hill when the rain falls”.

Chinese construction company COMPLANT was granted permission to proceed with gabion work, aimed at addressing these issues.

However, Branch-Jemmott, drawing from her experience in her former residence at Springvale, suggested that reinforcing the old road with gabions might have been a more effective solution.

“When the gabions were built deep within the gully and they strengthened the road, it helped to reduce the slippage that was occurring in that area,” she said.

The project, which began over a decade ago following the collapse of the main road in this landslip-prone Scotland District community, remains incomplete. Previous attempts to reinstate the road were unsuccessful, leaving residents in what Branch-Jemmott describes as being “between a rock and a really hard place”.

When contacted, chief executive officer of Haigh Communications, Joy-Ann Haigh, who handles public relations for COMPLANT, thanked the residents for their patience and assured them the work should come to an end within a few months, weather permitting.

“Given the unpredictable weather, it’s difficult to give exact timelines. However, we are aiming to complete within the first quarter of 2025, providing all goes to plan. The residents have been extremely patient for the most part, and we do understand their frustration from time to time,” she said. (DS/CA)