No reasonable individual would attempt to shrug off the battering last October’s Hurricane Melissa inflicted on sections of this country and the valiant effort by the Government, the private sector, and ordinary Jamaicans — whose resilience is the stuff of which movies are made — as they work towards recovery and rebuilding.

The reasonable individual also understands that recovery will take time. However, that does not lessen the sting of each setback, each announced delay.

One that has delivered a particularly hard punch is the new September 2026 completion date for the Montego Bay Perimeter Road. The project was decades in the making, before ground was broken on July 18, 2022; and the original deadline for work to end was May 2026.

As minster with responsibility for works Mr Robert Morgan explained, the entire project has been impacted in some way by hurricanes Beryl in 2024 and Melissa in 2025.

For those who do not live in the city nor have reason to traverse its traffic-jammed streets with any regularity, a few months’ delay may not appear to be a major issue. But it is, as sections of the city’s business community have told us in an article carried by this newspaper on April 9.

Second vice-president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ms Nadine Spence pointed to financial implications of the pushed-back date.

“The fact that it is delayed, we are concerned, we are very much concerned. Time means money, and the more you take of our time is the more we lose. While we understand that there are natural disasters, we are thinking that there needs to be much more urgency in the execution of the work,” she said.

Ms Spence is now worried about how the city’s streets will handle increased traffic from Dream Wknd 2026, a major entertainment event planned for July 30 to August 3, and expected to bring thousands of revellers to a city already choked with traffic.

As she pointed out, there is already sometimes hours of gridlock.

“It is waste of time, it is waste of energy, it is quite inefficient the way we travel,” she said.

The good news is, based on the latest update provided by the implementing agency, National Road Operating & Construction Company Ltd (NROCC), the Barnett Street leg of the US$374-million project is slated for completion this month, four weeks ahead of the original deadline. That should help ease some of the traffic in and out of the city. It will hopefully take some pressure off communities such as Westgate Hills, which is now being used as an informal bypass much to residents’ chagrin.

The September 2026 completion date applies to the Montego Bay Bypass and West Green Avenue aspects of the work. The Long Hill Bypass — the scope of which was changed from two lanes to four and added US$100 million to the original price tag — has been pushed back the furthest. It now has a May 2027 completion date.

Well-known real estate developer Mr Mark Kerr-Jarrett has sounded the alarm that administrative issues in the land acquisition process are a threat to the Long Hill Bypass leg.

“Everything, all of the acquisitions are going to be put back by a minimum of four months and anywhere up to nine months,” he warned.

We hope Mr Kerr-Jarrett’s fears are unfounded and Minister Morgan and NROCC have already factored this into the new end date.

Frankly, Montego Bay, its residents and those who visit, indeed the entire Jamaica which benefits from tourism revenue the city generates, cannot accommodate another delay in the project. Productivity-sapping traffic snags have been the order of the day for far too long. There can be no further delays.