PEOPLE’S National Party caretaker for the constituency of St Mary South Eastern Dr Shane Alexis is opposed to the indefinite closure of the Junction Road which links St Mary with the Kingston and St Andrew.

The road is to close for six hours a day from Broadgate to the Westmoreland Bridge to accommodate road improvement.

Dr Alexis, in a statement, said that while he is in support of the general improvement of roadways across Jamaica, he felt that it was necessary to tell motorists about how long they were expected to be inconvenienced as a result of the closure.

“The people of South East St Mary, in principle, support the Government of Jamaica’s commitment to improve the Junction main road. It is public knowledge that the first phase of work between Agualta Vale and Broadgate has already started. In an article on July 24th, 2018, it was reported that the National Works Agency (NWA) will close the road for six hours per day beginning July 30th, 2018. The article did not state the duration of the closure.

“We now publicly raise our objections and concerns to the measure; as well, to suggest an alternative solution,” Dr Alexis said, while stating that he was speaking on behalf of the St Mary South Eastern constituency organisation.

“The Junction main road is the shortest as well as the cheapest, and therefore the most used corridor between Kingston, St Mary and Portland. It facilitates major trade, education, jobs and the health needs of thousands of people almost on a daily basis that must travel to and from Kingston.

“For those reasons we strongly object to an indefinite closure of the road for six hours per day. We consider it impractical to ask the travelling public to endure an additional increase in travel costs for an indefinite period. The scale of work, which appears to have widened the future road way to have multiple lanes, is a curious development. In addition to the inconvenience and obvious delays in travel time, several questions have been raised by the residents, such as the necessity for the scale of roadwork (widening and mountain excavation) since it abruptly stops at the narrowing of the road at Broadgate. Additionally, is the project still expected to remain within budget and the timeline for completion?”

Dr Alexis urged the NWA to reduce the number of hours that the roadway would be closed for.

“A shorter duration of four hours daily between Monday and Friday would be more practical,” he stated. “A clear alternative route was not suggested and we take the opportunity to point out that the Westmoreland Bridge, Clonmel, Aleppo, Richmond main road, could then be utilised; either east to Scott’s Hall to rejoin the Junction Road, or south to Lawrence Tavern and Temple Hall should be considered by the agency.

“Those routes may not accommodate large commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses. For many years the residents in those communities have requested that road improvements be carried out and this current situation provides the opportunity to improve those roads.

“If the safety of the travelling public is of central importance to the authorities, then both the main road and alternative routes must be made safe.

“We therefore urge the authorities to act swiftly to carry out necessary remedial work on the alternate routes before the announced road closure and to seriously consider an adjustment to the hours of closure.

“The Opposition spokesman on transport, Mikhail Phillips, has been asked to probe our concerns on the expenditures of the overall project,” Dr Alexis stated.