NWA undertaking road rehabilitation in Trelawny
TRELAWNY, Jamaica – The National Works Agency (NWA) is currently rehabilitating three main roads in Trelawny at a cost of nearly $180 million.
Community Relations Officer at the NWA’s Western Office, Janel Ricketts, said that the works, which started in 2022, are at varying stages of completion and are expected to be concluded by May.
The projects entail the Martha Brae to Holland leg of the Falmouth to Springvale roadway, the Wakefield to Deeside and Deeside to Dromilly linkages, and the Stettin to High Gate Hall corridor.
Ricketts said the NWA is executing a “major repair effort” along the Martha Brae to Holland main road.
“This project is valued at approximately $15 million and targets approximately 500 metres of roadway between [the communities]. The project includes drain improvement as well as the reshaping and asphalting of targeted sections of the roadway,” she informed.
Ricketts further indicated that the project is the second phase of a targeted approach to repair the 16-kilometre roadway between Falmouth in north Trelawny and Springvale in south Trelawny.
She also advised that work started with the Wakefield to Deeside corridor is far advanced with approximately 85 per cent of the programmed activities completed.
“The first phase of the project is valued at approximately $145 million and targets approximately four kilometres of roadway. We have done much work, in terms of improving the drainage system and the application of the asphalt concrete layer,” Ricketts said.
Work is now focused on completing the outstanding activities on the contract, which entails small areas of asphaltic application, and which should be completed by the end of March.
Work on the second phase, which includes the approximately two-kilometre stretch from Deeside to Dromilly, is ongoing and estimated to be completed at the end of May.
About $18 million has been earmarked to carry out significant drainage improvement and reshaping and asphalting of this section of the roadway.
Meanwhile, work is being done on the Stettin to High Gate Hall roadway in south Trelawny, to repair several sections which have been damaged by flood waters due to successive storm events over time.
Sections of the roadway, which were reduced to single lanes, are currently being restored. So far, the NWA has reconstructed four of five retaining walls.
“We have also restored a culvert in the vicinity of the Glastonbury Processing Plant. The project is aimed at restoring full access to the Stettin to High Gate Hall roadway [and], in so doing, improve the safety and ease with which motorists traverse that particular corridor. We are approximately 60 per cent [done] and should be completed by the first week in May,” Ricketts said.