RESIDENTS OF RURAL parishes could get some relief soon from the bad road conditions which have been at the root of a number of roadblocks in recent weeks.
The $2 billion Deferred Financing Road Rehabilitation Programme (DFRRP) of the Ministry of Transport and Works, which targets secondary roads, is scheduled to get under way in the first quarter of next year.
"That is the programme that is going to deal with a lot of the roads -- that is a substantial programme," said Milton Hodelin, Director of Maintenance in the Ministry.
He said the prequalification exercise was under way and that invitation to tender is expected to be completed by the middle of next month. Details of the programme will be announced as soon as the tender documents are ready.
In the last six weeks, residents in various communities of St. Catherine, St. Thomas, St. Mary and Hanover have blocked the roads to protest against their deplorable condition.
Last month, Member of Parliament for Eastern St. Thomas, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, was marooned in the St. Johns area of his constituency as angry residents blocked the main road to show their disgust. He was rescued by the police.
Earlier this month, hundreds of residents in Western St. Mary also mounted barricades to voice their disapproval at the poor state of the roads in their parish. They were also upset that they had not been paid for work done two months earlier under the Ministry's Routine Maintenance Programme, phase one of which ends in December.
The Gleaner also reported earlier this month that police in Hanover were complaining of being "stressed out" by their efforts to deal with two-day long roadblocks in the Cascade, Chester Castle, Glasgow and Greenland areas of the parish. Like elsewhere, residents were upset that the poor road conditions had existed for a long time.
