MONTEGO BAY, St James — With the massive Western Water Resilience Project added, over the summer break, to the mix of work being done in and around this city, there is concern that there will be major traffic challenges today as thousands of students head out for the start of the new school term. Superintendent Eron Samuels, who leads the St James Police Division, is encouraging commuters to factor delays into their travel time.

“In light of all the work that is being done, we have already identified the areas of concern. For the pipeline project, that has been progressing smoothly [in terms of] how they have set up and organised themselves. What we will ask is that people leave out a little bit earlier so that they can make up time for the delays that they will have in that project. That is the one that we believe will cause a little bit more headache than the others,” he told the Jamaica Observer Friday.

Even as he stressed that he does not anticipate any major delays, he said he will have boots on the ground in that area today. Looking ahead to the evening rush hour, he is hoping commuters will take a staggered approach to road travel.

“If they have somewhere they can go and sit and relax for a little while until the traffic runs off, that will help to ease the congestion and ease the anxiety that they’ll face by being in traffic for extended periods,” said Samuels. “The truth is, we have more vehicles than the network of the roadwork can actually manage, so no matter what, the number of vehicles is just a challenge. So unless persons carpool or take public transportation, we will still see some issues as it relates to traffic… We have seen an increase in public transportation, the JUTC buses… so let us ask them to utilise those,” he encouraged.

Samuels and his team have amassed years of experience handling the back-to-school rush, and past traffic management plans have taken into account everything from protests to pothole-riddled roads.

Some may argue that this year is different.

Traffic crawls along an under-construction area of the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project about noon on Saturday. This is part of improvements being made in the West Green/Catherine Hall area. Charmaine N Clarke

Phase 1 of the US$450-million Western Water Resilience Project began along the Elegant Corridor in Rose Hall, St James, in June. Pipe-laying between Greenwood and Montego Bay is expected to last two years, with completion anticipated by summer of 2028. Work also continues on the US$354-million Montego Bay Perimeter Road which intersects the North Coast Highway at Ironshore, with its various sub-projects impacting traffic flow in the vicinity of Alice Eldemire Drive and Howard Cooke Highway, along with large residential communities in Bogue, Irwin, Cornwall Courts, and Salt Spring. In the Catherine Hall/West Green area, for example, traffic slowed to a crawl about midday Saturday as motorists navigated dusty, uneven surfaces while keeping an eye out for construction crew and heavy equipment.

The last deadline provided by the works ministry is for work on West Green Avenue to be completed this month. Samuels — who said he expects the bypass to open around the middle to the end of this school term — stressed that this will divert significant traffic away from the heart of the bustling city.

For now, based on how the project has been handled to date, he does not anticipate any issues when schools are once again in session. And even if things do not go as smoothly as he expects, he is confident his team can handle it.

“We will have enough personnel on the ground to monitor those. In the township itself, we’ll be putting police officers at the stop lights, as usual, to keep the traffic moving,” explained Samuels.

While he declined to divulge specific numbers regarding deployment, he acknowledged that there are staffing constraints which may impact how his team prevents and clears traffic snarls.

“There are never enough police officers, based on what we do and things that might happen, but we are flexible and we have shown that we have been managing the traffic situation,” he said.

Samuels noted that the division recently received an influx of additional traffic personnel, which paid off in smoother traffic flow since earlier in the year and positively impacted the previous school term. He said overall policing strategies for the city remain largely unchanged, with cops prepared to pivot as necessary.

Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, Matthew Samuda (second left) and other stakeholders during a recent tour of the US$450-million Western Water Resilience Project. .

He also confirmed that traffic personnel are strongly encouraged to wear body cameras.

“Our direct traffic police officers, most of them will be equipped. If they’re not equipped, it’s probably because we ran out of body cameras or if they have more than one police officer working at the same location. But we have been encouraging and monitoring our traffic police officers to wear their body cameras,” stated Samuels.

Confident that his team is ready for today, the St James divisional head pointed to an area of concern that is beyond their control: potholes. He described them as “major impediments” to smooth traffic flow.

“We have to look and see how the NWA [National Works Agency] or the [St James] Municipal Corporation can assist in ensuring that these holes are filled up or patched before the school year begins to fully flow,” he said.

While not all schools are expected to open today, full operations are anticipated by the end of the week. Samuels assured that police personnel will be out in their numbers to cover critical areas, monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis to prevent recurring issues.

“All in all, we have made our plans and we’re satisfied that the plans can work,” the superintendent assured.