LUCEA, Hanover — The National Works Agency (NWA) will be making a significant shift from asphalt road surfacing to concrete pavement on a section of road that leads through the coastal town of Lucea. About $40 million has been allocated for the seawall section of the Northern Coastal Highway that leads through the capital town, and work is expected to be done within months.

The change in approach is an effort to find a more permanent fix for the pothole-plagued section of heavily used road that has been patched numerous times over the years. Coastal conditions have also contributed to the road’s deterioration.

National Works Agency (NWA) Community Relations Officer, Western Region, Janel Ricketts said the NWA is currently finalising the details and hopes to have the project implemented by the end of the year.

According to Ricketts, the project entails raising the road, preparing the foundation, and resurfacing it using reinforced concrete.

“The area is below sea level and as such, despite efforts to repair the roadway, it would often be eroded as a result of high tide/flooding in the area,” she said.

“This new approach to the repair of the roadway will have a more long-lasting effect,” she added.

Ricketts was responding to queries from the Jamaica Observer following last Friday’s tour of the area by NWA representatives, members of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), and other stakeholders. The tour came after the plan to use concrete was announced during last Thursday’s regular monthly general meeting of the HMC.

“Finally, they started to listen to the corporation –– but I think they had to put a Band-Aid on it for the election,” mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels quipped in reaction to the announcement.

He was referring to recent patching of the road.

When the issue of the problematic thoroughfare came up during a town hall meeting held at the HMC last November, the corporation’s then newly assigned engineering officer for the Roads and Works Department, Lavern Morris, suggested that the best way to resolve the issue was to use concrete instead of asphalt.