A number of students and teachers at the Success Primary School along the North Coast highway in Rose Hall, St James, have come down with asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses triggered by the dust being generated by the massive construction taking place there.

“I myself have been affected; I have had asthma attack which I believe is as a result of the dust,” said the school’s principal, Yvonne Miller-Wisdom.

According to Miller-Wisdom, the dust from the roadway which lies in close proximity to the school has also created extra work for the institution’s ancillary staff.

“Our ancillary staff has to be dusting the offices and furniture regularly and covering up our computers and other equipment ,” said Miller-Wisdom.

” We even have to be wiping dust frequently from our artifacts in our museum and covering up some of the things there,” she added.

Danish Contractors E Phil &Sons, are carrying out the work on Section 2A of the highway which runs from Montego Bay to Greenside in Trelawny. It is expected that the US$50.27 – million job which started last year in March is scheduled to be completed in September will make travel considerably easier.

However, the level of suffering and inconvenience that the construction is causing is taking on proportions of a nightmare as commuters are forced to spend hours in clouds of construction dust.

President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pauline Reid, told the Observer West that she expected the situation to worsen come next month when Cricket World Cup starts, especially since the road would not be completed as promised in time.

She said commuters can experience travel times of up to two hours getting into Montego Bay from the Falmouth end.

In the meantime, Miller- Wisdom is suggesting that the developers of the multi-million dollar road project wet the road with water more frequently in a bid to alleviate the dust nuisance.

“I know they are damping the road because I see them doing it, but I think that if they do it more often the problem will not be that bad,” she said.