TANGLE RIVER, St James – The $35 million repair of the Tangle River main road, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan more than a year ago, is now 80 per cent complete, the National Works Agency reported this week.

Work on the road, which was cut in two by a massive landslide triggered by the 2004 hurricane, began four months ago and is scheduled for completion at the end of this month.

“Tangle River is going on pretty well. We have already re-opened the roadway to vehicular traffic and we are now doing the protective works such as finalising the gabion walls,” Stephen Shaw, the NWA’s manager of communication and customer service, told the Observer on Thursday.

People travelling into and out of the area had, up until a few weeks ago, to use the makeshift road constructed through a private property. They were also required to pay the $100 charge imposed by those residents who had constructed the road, to access that route.

In addition to the damage to the roadway caused by ‘Ivan’, the landslide in Tangle River also dislodged several graves while causing extensive damage to a church and several homes. Crops were also badly affected.

– cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com