THE roadway that was damaged recently by a major land slippage in the Spring Mount area of St James, will be diverted.

A Bailey bridge will also be installed to replace the collapsed bridge which links the district of Over River to the main road at Sign in the parish.

This was announced this week by minister of transport and works, Dr Peter Phillips, following a tour of areas in St James that were damaged by the recent heavy rains.

Both the Spring Mount main road and the bridge at Over River became impassable following several days of continuous rainfall in western Jamaica. Thousands of residents in the two areas have since been using alternative routes.

Dr Phillips told the Jamaica Information Service that the Bailey bridge would be put in place as soon as possible, to allow residents in the community to go about their daily business.

In relation to the land slippage in Spring Mount, he said the course of the roadway would have to be changed.

“We have held some preliminary discussions with the person who owns the land adjoining where the slippage took place, and we will be asking the survey team, the land surveyors, the hydraulic engineers and the soil people to come in within the next couple of weeks,” the minister said.

Dr Phillips said he expected the surveys and design work to be completed in six to eight weeks. “One thing we have to make certain is that we do a job that is adequate to the particular soil conditions and the engineering conditions that exist in that area, so that we do not have that major slippage again,” he said.

The minister said that once the design work and the costing were completed, work would begin on the new road.

In the meanwhile, Dr Phillips said the Public Works Department was patching and upgrading the alternative routes to cope with the increase in traffic.

Commenting on the traffic flow in downtown Montego Bay, the minister pointed out that work on the South Gully drainage project had progressed to the stage where traffic along St James Street would be permitted this week.

Dr Phillips said that work on this project was on schedule for completion in March 2001.

He also noted that the free-flow of traffic along the Howard Cooke Boulevard had been restored.