MONTEGO BAY, St James — The National Works Agency (NWA) has promised work will begin next week, but some residents who have had to endure the pothole-riddled Friendship to Hurlock road in St James are not getting their hopes up.

Others are, however, more optimistic that the $163.5 million project, announced last October and clamoured for long before then, will finally get under way.

“The contractor should be mobilising soon, as early as next week,” Janel Ricketts, community relations officer for the NWA’s western region told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

She said the multi-phased project will take more than six months to complete.

“It involves site clearance and drain cleaning, drainage improvement, asphalt concrete overlay, that’s the core of the project,” she explained.

The work is part of the Fairfield to Point project, which spans 19.66 kilometres of road between both communities.

It is being done in phases. During previous legs, repairs were done to 1.6 kilometres of road between Fairfield and Taylor Avenue at a cost of $74 million. Phase two, which picked up at Taylor Avenue and ran to Friendship, cost $114 million. Once the Friendship to Hurlock phase is completed, the final leg will run from Hurlock to Point.

The imminent Friendship to Hurlock leg was bankrolled with $100 million from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) with the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation providing the rest of the funds through the Maintenance of Secondary Roads programme. This leg of the project was officially green-lighted during a ceremony at the Office of the Prime Minister West last year. Work on the 1.8-kilometre stretch is being done by J & L Equipment & Construction Services Limited.

Among those happy that repairs will finally begin are residents of Estuary, a fairly new housing development.

“I am happy to hear that the work will officially start soon. We who live in the scheme will certainly appreciate it because it has not been good so far travelling along that stretch of road to and from the community,” one Estuary Citizens’ Association member remarked.

“It will also benefit not only our community, but also the other nearby communities, where other residents also utilise the roadway, so this is definitely welcomed,” he added.

Tyrone Willocks, who lives in the nearby community of Meadows of Irwin, which itself is plagued by horrendous roads, agreed.

“Yes man, it’s been too long, they need the road to be fixed so that the residents who use that section of road can enjoy a better experience when driving on it,” he said even as he appealed for work to be done in his neighbourhood as well.

Meanwhile, Larry, a resident of John’s Hall, which is among the numerous communities accessed by the Friendship to Hurlock route, has suggested that some of the work be done at night in order to minimise the disruptions that will invariable come with it.

“I know that area not so easy, but we know seh like how school go start back next week it might go cause some backup,” he cautioned.

However, Malachi Waite, who lives in Friendship, could not get himself to think that far ahead. He is sceptical that work will begin next week.

“We have been hearing that for a long while, couple years well, and mi haffi see it start first, then mi will believe,” he said.

“Mi a hear from late 2019, early 2020 that it going to be fixed and that time passed and we inna 2023 now. So make we see what a gwaan,” he insisted.

Waite complained that since 2018 or thereabouts, the road has been badly in need of repair. He said it was dug up to put in pipes leading into Estuary.

“It was better before them dig it up,” he lamented.

The road is now a bumpy dust bowl that morphs into craters filled with mud whenever it rains. Residents have staged several protests aimed at nudging the authorities to make repairs. During the most recent demonstration of their ire last October they downed trees and used debris to cut off the flow of traffic.