RESIDENTS of a more-than-30-year-old apartment building in the Torrington Park housing scheme in St Andrew are grateful for the temporary wooden structure which was put in place to allow them safe access to their premises, after a staircase gave way and injured a resident last month.

On Sunday, November 17, Althea McIntosh, 59, was sitting on the staircase leading from the second to the third floor at the front of the building when it collapsed. After that incident, residents resorted to the use of a wooden ladder which they had precariously placed on top of the collapsed step to get to their dwellings.

With the sturdier arrangement now in place, residents told the Jamaica Observer on Monday that they are glad that they no longer have to use the unsafe method they were previously using to get to their apartments.

Ann Allen, sister of the injured resident, said that while she does not live on the building she visits her sister and other family members almost every day. Allen said she and the other residents were pleased to see the diligent work being put in by the contractor who has not only put in the temporary stairs but has been doing repairs to the roof of the building.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the site for an update on restorative works Monday, the newspaper was told by Neville Dixon, representative of contractor Dockswell Construction, which has been selected to carry out the major infrastructural repairs to the deteriorating building, that the temporary staircase was erected within a week of the company’s evaluation and the collapsed staircase was demolished.

“Additionally, what we have done is that all the stairs that have been compromised have been shored-up to give the residents a kind of reassurance in case of anything. Apart from that, there has been tremendous water leakage, so we have done some waterproofing on the buildings,” he said.

Dixon, who is project manager at Dockswell, said the next phase of the works will involve demolishing the remaining defective stairs and putting up new ones, but before that is done the designs are being finalised.

“We are fine-tuning the drawings because it should take a lot of engineering assessment to see what is appropriate, in terms of what is being put up there,” and how best to ensure the work is done in a way that will not displace residents for too long.

“We’re going to take down the compromised stairs, but we can’t do it too quickly because the residents have to have access. So we have to wait until the final plans are prepared, which won’t be too long, and then we move to get back up what is there as fast as possible,” he said.

— Alecia Smith