PEOPLE who traverse the Old Hope Road, Munroe Road and Liguanea corridor in Jamaica’s capital city will have to put up with the traffic snarl they are now experiencing for at least another six weeks as the National Water Commission (NWC) carries out a massive water and sewerage improvement project in the area.

But minister with responsibility for water Matthew Samuda is urging patience as he says the $1.2-billion project — which includes upgrades to potable water mains and the installation of new sewer lines — will provide major benefits for residents when it is completed.

Addressing journalists during a tour of the work now taking place on Munroe Road and Wellington Drive, Samuda admitted that motorists who use that corridor, particularly during peak hours, face delays but denied that was the cause for the gridlock in sections of the Corporate Area last Friday.

Samuda pointed to the heavy rainfall in the city, which made three gullies difficult to traverse, as among the factors which combined to have motorists spending hours making trips that would normally take minutes, from shortly after 4:00 pm until well after 7:00 pm.

“We also saw ongoing construction in the area at the foot of Red Hills Road which would have caused some delays, and there were other construction projects in the vicinity of Maxfield [Avenue] which would have had an impact,” said Samuda.

“That does not diminish the role in traffic [congestion] that the ongoing construction works in the region of Wellington, Munroe Road, and Seymour [Avenue] and its environs is having on the community in this area, but it certainly is not the sole reason that you would have had the traffic back up yesterday [Friday].

“But, we always take concerns from the public very seriously, which is why we are here on a Saturday morning… to ensure that the work is progressing, firstly as per scheduled, and progressing in such a way to minimise the impact on both the immediate surrounding community and indeed those who must traverse this corridor,” added Samuda.

He told journalists that the work is on schedule with the current phases expected to end by September, as was projected when ground was broken for the project in May 2025.

“That doesn’t mean that between now and September there will not be some discomfort and some pain, quite frankly, but so far we are progressing as well as possible based on the scale of the infrastructure that we are putting in,” said Samuda as he pointed out that the project includes a complete rerun of the water and sewage distribution systems in the area.

According to Samuda, people who use the Munroe Road, Old Hope Road and Liguanea corridor will see some significant relief in the traffic situation by the end of May.

“We expect the Munroe Road corridor to be fully restored with asphalt, pressure tested, connected, and to move from this section of the project to other sections by the end of May,” added Samuda.

He said whenever it has been possible, the NWC has worked at nights on the project to speed up its completion, and over the next month this will be done when suitable.

“But we don’t want to do the heavy digging and trenching at nights for the simple reason that there are residents in the area who would then be unable to sleep. And I want to alert the public, even before we put out the specifics, that when public holidays are coming… we will use that opportunity of reduced traffic to close the road for a period, which would allow us to move further and faster along,” said Samuda.

The minister’s commitment to the end of May timeline for the Munroe Road section of the project was endorsed by NWC Acting President Kevin Kerr, who told journalists on the tour that the timeline is very realistic.

“We at the NWC have heard the public’s concerns [and] we are here today to provide an update and some clarity… What we are doing here is to improve the level of service to our customers — and the activities for the remaining six months will bring further discomfort, but we will provide updates on various platforms on the schedule.

“In addition, we intend to complete this section of the work by the ending of May and to improve on the road reinstatement,” declared Kerr.

In the meantime, the project engineer, Gary Walters, pointed out that work in the Munroe Road area has been impacted by the quality of the sub-surface material.

He said the work team has encountered rocks of a very hard nature which has forced them to employ special equipment.

“So this has slowed the work and not allowed us to move at the pace that we would like to, but nevertheless we believe that we are on schedule and we will be out at the end of May, as communicated earlier,” declared Walters.

During the launch of the project last year Samuda emphasised its environmental benefits as he noted that outdated sewerage systems have impacted underground wells in the area.

“There are wells and water sources within this general area that we are not currently able to access because of high nitrate content — and that is because of the environmental scourge that I call the backyard pit,” Samuda said then and reiterated on Saturday.

Minister with responsibility for water Matthew Samuda (right) and acting president of the NWC Kevin Kerr touring the NWC’s work on Munroe Road in St Andrew on Saturday.