The Portmore Municipal Council said plans were well advanced to repair all major potholes in the community prior to the March 11 start of the third largest show on earth, Cricket World Cup 2007.

If all goes according to plan, that work will begin early next month, one month prior to the start of the cricket matches.

Due to its close proximity to Kingston, the municipality is expecting to host tourists from around the world and wants to have its face-lift completed before their arrival.

The municipality has already spent $165,000 patching some main and parochial roads, and the National Works Agency (NWA) is scheduled to supervise the remaining repair work consisting of general road maintenance and general road works (to include the cleaning of drains and bushing).

Public relations officer at the municipal council Nicole Morrison told the Observer that the council decided it could not wait indefinitely on the NWA, which had been slow to do the necessary repairs.

“Not all of them are our roads (but) we thought it was the local authority’s responsibility to people that we repair some of the critical areas that posed safety and traffic hazards,” Morrison said.

But the NWA’s Stephen Shaw said neither he nor his parish manager was aware of any such requests made by the municipal council.

He said the agency had, however, taken steps to fix some main roads that needed attention, but that no contracts had yet been awarded. The NWA would therefore, according to Shaw, be going back to tender to have the patching done before the biggest sporting event to be hosted in the region.

Some of the worst potholes in the municipality are to be found at major intersections and round-a-bouts, including those at Southboro, Braeton and Portmore Parkway.

Morrison insisted that the bad areas were mostly located on the main roads and not on roads which fell under the purview of the council.

“The parochial roads are in a fairly good condition. Most of them (the bad ones] are bus routes,” she said.

The road repair work is part of broader plans by the Portmore Municipal Council to improve the physical appearance of the community. Beautification projects under the government’s National Beautification Programme have been planned with some, such as the bushing of Municipal Boulevard, already complete.

In addition, there are plans to erect sign boards and a welcome sign along the boulevard, which is the main entrance into the municipality from the old capital of Spanish Town.

“We are also going to do some beach cleaning, but that has not yet started,” Morrison said.