Dam Head residents decry poor road conditions, MP anticipates repairs
Residents of the Dam Head community, located just outside of Spanish Town, are voicing their frustration over the deplorable state of their roads, which they say have been a long-standing issue. Member of Parliament for North Central St Catherine Natalie Neita Garvey has admitted that previous road repairs were subpar and reassures that restorations will be made soon.
In an interview resident Leon Smith expressed a mix of frustration and exhaustion. “When the road is bad, we really have some deep craters in the road. Sometimes they are made overnight, and you are not aware of them and your vehicle drop in them, and you damage the vehicle and then you have to be spending a fortune to repair that vehicle”, said Smith.
He continued, “Not only that, but sometimes when the rain falls it makes the water settle and that creates stagnant water, which of course you know breed vectors, mosquito and all them rubbish.
The lack of drainage too, that’s what’s killing the roads. There is a massive, massive lack of drainage”, Smith said. He also noted that when the roads had been fixed in the past the repairs were often temporary solutions. “One of the greatest things that we’ve noticed is that no matter how the roads fix it’s just like a patch job. It’s never to find a solution in what is causing the road to be that way. It’s just fix the road when it damage and then few months down the line its back to square one”, he said.
Smith added that while there has been recent work done in some areas of the community, the main road connecting Bog Walk, Dam Head and other surrounding communities in the area, to Spanish Town is still in desperate need of attention. “They did fix a part of the road as promised, our Member of Parliament, she did come through and fix a part of it. But my gosh the main road – that is the bypass linking Linstead, Bog Walk, those heading in that direction also, coming – from Damhead, that main road is in deplorable condition”, he said.
Another resident who wished to remain anonymous added, “There’s a massive hole in the corner of that main road”, he said, stating that if drivers are new to the road it can be problematic to navigate. “I have experienced where a few buses got punctured in that corner so it’s very dangerous”, he said.
MP Garvey says that she is aware of the poor road conditions in the area and that it is her understanding that the roads would soon be fixed. “The main roads are the responsibility of the National Works Agency. Most of these roads are usually under routine maintenance programmes which is not so routine anymore. So, they get fixed when there is apparently somebody who agrees to do it at a particular time”, she said.
Garvey continued, “Sometimes it gets very bad and as the MP I have to be calling and texting and writing but I’m understanding that it should be done in quite short order”. She noted that the road was frequently used and needed sufficient surveillance and maintenance. “That route is quite a critical route because it is heavily trafficked and therefore I believe it should get more attention and more frequented,” she said.
Garvey is also of the belief that the roads are not always fixed properly. “There are some times that the roads seem to go much faster than others and I suspect from my own personal opinion that perhaps the materials currently used in some places don’t last as long and perhaps sometimes not enough of it is utilized to get the job done”. She also believed that a lack of drainage was a big part of why the roads tend to revert in a quick manner. “In some cases, I don’t believe the drainage systems are placed to take the water off the road quickly, so it stays on the road and erodes the road after a while. So, there are a couple reasons that I believe causes that kind of erosion after a little while but I believe that better use of other material could be a more long-lasting repair for the road to be fixed,” she said.
Though Garvey assures that road repairs are to be expected soon, a committed date was not given.
