ST JAMES, Jamaica — The community of Copperwood in St James has benefitted from a $7.7m road rehabilitation project courtesy of CEMEX/Carib Cement.

Homer E Davis, Member of Parliament for Southern St James, expressed gratitude for the road improvement project, which residents say was desperately needed.

Minister Davis, who was speaking at the official handing over ceremony of the concreted 2,500 square metres of roadway on Wednesday, thanked corporate partner CEMEX/Carib Cement for making the idea a reality.

“It was after weeks of dedicated work and collaboration [that] we’re at this point here today where we can say yes, we’re officially commissioning this roadway… I even took my own Minister of Local Government here at one point and the only solution we looked at at the time was a concrete road… and so we started, and I’m happy to say and to see that what we have started has been completed.”

Minister Davis also used the opportunity to thank the women of Copperwood for their dedication in bringing the project to completion.

“[If] you realise [Jorge] Martinez (General Manager, CEMEX/Carib Cement), it’s mostly ladies here… when I visited here, there were more women doing the work more than the men and I was so proud. I was so proud of the ladies. I went away and said… if our men would only take a leaf out of the ladies’ book [you can just imagine] how well things would be,” he shared adding that there is roughly 120 foot of thoroughfare left to be completed.

Daviz also shared that other roads in the community will be rehabilitated before August 2024.