MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Parliamentarian Mikael Phillips has expressed disappointment with the slow implementation of the Greater Mandeville Traffic Management System.

The $80-million project, which includes roads and intersections being widened and signalised, is expected to address nagging traffic congestion in this south-central town.

“We have been getting too many promises from the authorities — the National Works Agency, the municipal council — in having proper traffic management put in place for the town of Mandeville and for other towns and its environs, [and] to ensure that all the cameras are working and the effect of traffic management from them,” Phillips, who represents Manchester North Western, told the Jamaica Observer on July 28 after raising the issue in an address at the Manchester Parish Development Committee’s (PDC) annual general meeting.

“I am quite disappointed that we haven’t gotten any further than just talk in dealing with traffic management,” Phillips, the Opposition spokesman on transport and works, had told the meeting.

Among the roads and intersections to be signalised under the system are North Race Course Road to Main Street, North Race Course Road to Caledonia Road, Villa Road to Main Street, South Race Course Road, Caledonia Road, Park Crescent, Manchester Road, Perth Road, and Greenvale Road.

Manchester PDC Chairman Anthony Freckleton said the contract was put to tender for the system.

“The problem is, it takes too long to get things done in our parish,” Freckleton lamented. “There is no head office of any government agency in our parish — and that is the problem. For this traffic plan, it took 12 years to reach where it is at; now, it is at tender,” he said.

The project is expected to create a ring road around Mandeville.

— Kasey Williams