FOGA ROAD, Clarendon — Member of Parliament (MP) for Clarendon South Western Lothan Cousins has rejected a claim by the National Road Operating & Constructing Company (NROCC) that Foga Road is no longer being used by trucks to transport construction material for the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000.

An NROCC spokesperson, who opted not to be named, told the Jamaica Observer on Monday that a private road was being built to transport material from a nearby quarry to the construction site.

“The project no longer uses that road to truck materials. All the embankments are in place, so there is no way the trucks can go on the highway from there,” said the spokesperson.

The NROCC statement came on the heels of a protest by York Town taxi operators, who have blamed the deplorable state of Foga Road on the use of trucks to transport the construction material to a section of the highway project.

Cousins told the Observer on Monday that Foga Road is one of six thoroughfares being used by contractor China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) for the highway project.

“That [NROCC’s claim] is not true. Why would CHEC be using their grader and equipment on these roads to continue to maintain them, if their trucks were not using them?” he asked.

“They grade the roads once a week and they wet the roads two, three times a day, so to say that the highway [construction] is not utilising the road would be a lie,” said the Opposition MP.

He added that there was a point in time when there were designated flag persons to ensure that the traffic was controlled in the vicinity of the quarry.

NROCC is responsible for overseeing the design, construction, and maintenance of Jamaica’s highways.

The highway — which will reduce travel time between Kingston, Mandeville and points west — was originally scheduled for completion in October 2022, but has been extended to March 2023.

Cousins claimed that CHEC has acknowledged that the roads were damaged during the construction of the highway.

“… But they say they can’t do anything, because it is not within the scope and that NROCC must put it in the scope,” he said.

CHEC has declined to respond to queries made by the Observer.

Cousins pointed to a response he got from minister with responsibility for works Everald Warmington during a standing finance committee meeting recently.

“In Parliament last month, I tackled the minister in respect of this matter,” said Cousins.

Warmington said NROCC had assessed the situation.

“If there are roads that were damaged because of the heavy traffic going to the construction of the highway, naturally the contractor will have to make the necessary repairs to the satisfaction of NROCC,” Warmington had said.

Cousins contends that work on the highway has also resulted in flooding.

“The highway construction project crosses over several National Works Agency (NWA) gazette roads — Foga Road, Denbigh Drive, Comfort Road, Decoy Road and St Jago Road — where they construct underpasses. From time to time when the rain falls the highway trucks, rather than continue on the alignment, they sometimes use these roads to transport the material to and from the site,” the MP said.

He added that Duke Street, which is a parochial road, has also been affected.

“Those overweight trucks have caused significant damage to the road infrastructure… All the underpasses are flooded as soon as it rains. We are told that they are going to install drains to mitigate against flooding. We have to wait until the project is complete,” he said.

“However, the reality is that all of the communities that are along the highway corridor are in danger of being flooded out because of the inadequacy of the drains that have been installed along the highway,” he added.

He said the issues will be assessed on a tour scheduled for tomorrow.

The parish council, NWA and the Toll Authority, he said, will “take a first-hand look at all of the impacted areas and for us to come to some understanding as to what needs to be done”.

NWA Communications Manager Stephen Shaw said, normally there is rehabilitative work once roads are affected by highway construction.

“If you are doing construction work, as in the case of creating this highway, out of necessity you have to be hauling materials using heavy trucks and equipment. If those things cause damage to the local road, then ordinarily what usually happens is that when they are tying in the new road to the old road some amount of rehabilitative work is done in the vicinity of the new road,” he said.

“They won’t necessarily do the entire road. That is something that would have to be in the form of some executive decision at a higher level of government,” he added.