WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — The National Works Agency (NWA) has commenced the paving of a temporary route for a section of the Belmont main road in Westmoreland, which collapsed during unstable weather conditions in Western Jamaica last month.

The paving started on Wednesday, following a brief interruption by one of two landowners with whom the NWA had a verbal agreement for the use of a section of their land for the creation of the temporary route.

One of the landowners had demanded a formal agreement in hand before the start of work.

The NWA’s Community Relations Officer for the Western Region, Janel Ricketts, told Observer Online that the land owners should have the letters in hand by the end of the week.

Ricketts said the NWA had to go through a process before the letter could be made available.

“We started by meeting with the residents. Two properties are being affected and then from there, [we] await the surveyor’s report and then based on that, the legal document is drafted,” explained Ricketts.

The breakaway of the roadway along the stretch between Luna Sea Inn and Bluefields Bay Villas also involved the collapse of a section of a retaining wall which has resulted in single-lane traffic.

Ricketts said designs are being done for repairs to be carried out in the area. Meanwhile, she said work on the temporary route is expected to be completed by Friday.

“We will finish it by tomorrow but people have been driving on it. It is just a small section that is left,” she said on Thursday.

— Anthony Lewis

Workmen attached to the National Works Agency paving the newly created temporary route on a section of the Belmont Main Road in Westmoreland which collapsed in March.