A two-month-old squabble between TransJamaican and the National Works Agency (NWA) over who is responsible for repairing vandalised traffic lights at the entrance to the Portmore Highway seems about to be settled.

Stephen Shaw, communications manager at the NWA, told the Observer on Tuesday that in the interest of the travelling public, the agency had decided to undertake the repairs and to have the lights turned on by next week.

“Because of the importance of the intersection to the motoring public and pedestrians alike, a decision was taken at the level of the ministry for us to go ahead and have the signal repaired and put back into service,” Shaw said.

It has been two months since the opening of the Portmore Highway, but the traffic lights at the intersection of Marcus Garvey Drive are yet to be turned on as both TransJamaican, the operators of the toll road, and the (NWA) say they are not responsible for repairing the damaged lights.

Trevor Jackson, managing director of TransJamaican, told the Observer on Tuesday that it was the NWA’s responsibility to have the traffic lights repaired as his organisation had already done their part.

“We built that intersection and we handed it back… if NROCC (National Road Operating and Constructing Company) hasn’t handed it to the NWA that is a separate matter, but that is not our business,” Jackson said, adding that as far as he knew, NROCC had handed over control to the NWA.

But the NWA’s communications manager, while admitting that the lights could not be turned on because they were vandalised, said the NWA’s original position was that TransJamaican should have them repaired since they were never handed over to the agency.

A source told the Observer that the traffic lights, which were installed by TransJamaican, were vandalised on at least three different occasions by vendors and windshield wipers in that area, who wanted motorists to wait longer at the intersection.

The source also pointed out that this was done before the traffic lights were officially turned over to the NWA, hence the reason for the debate as to who was responsible for replacing them.

In another matter, TransJamaican told the Observer that the street lamps along the highway corridor were not yet turned on as both the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and the Portmore Municipality are responsible for paying the bill – a claim strongly denied by the KSAC.

But Lincoln Evans, Town Clerk at the KSAC, told the Observer that the council was not aware of any arrangement made for them to be responsible for the payments of the bills for lights which were being used on a private road.

Evans said the KSAC was responsible for the payment of the bills for street lights which are covered by property taxes. In this case, he said, this was a private road for which a fee was being charged.

“It is a private road because you have to pay to go on it, so you can’t ask the public to pick up that expense for it to have lighting.

As such, Evans said the toll operators needed to make agreements with the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to pay for the highway street lamps.