By Clive Simpson, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
SOME RESIDENTS of Flankers in St. James will be forced to change their place of abode to facilitate development as some of their homes fall squarely in the path designated for a major four-lane carriageway, which forms a part of segment two of the new Northcoast Highway.
In explaining what is to happen, Stephen Shaw, the National Works Agency's (NWA) Community Relations Officer in western Jamaica told The Gleaner that under the existing roadway between the Sangster International Airport and the Petcom Gas Station in Ironshore will be replaced by the new carriageway.
LESS TRAVELLING TIME
Segment Two of the Northcoast Highway, which is now in high gear, will tie the resort towns of Montego Bay and Ocho Rios by one major highway, which should reduce the travelling time between both areas by as much as half of the times it now takes under the existing road structure.
"Insofar as Flankers is concerned, the upgrading means that similar to what is now happening on the Howard Cooke Boulevard, where you have four lanes two lanes in either direction, that is going to be the situation out here," said Mr. Shaw.
According to the plan, the roadway will be realigned from a point in the vicinity of the Manevarose Guest House and continue behind the NWA's office to link up near Ironshore. A section of the road in Ironshore will also be realigned to pass between the Blue Diamond Shopping Centre and the Esso Gas Station. The roadway will then continue behind MacDonald's and the Petcom Gas Station in the vicinity of Sandals Royal Caribbean Hotel.
SOME AMOUNT OF
RESTRICTION
"On completion, it will mean some dislocation for some people and, albeit temporarily, for sporting persons who use the football field at Flankers," said Mr. Shaw. "We will not be compromising the standard of the playing field, meaning the length, the width and the playing surface. We will be putting back possibly an even better playing area out there."
While the new roadway will offer the residents of Flankers a first class intersection to take them into their community, Mr. Shaw is advising that for the safety of everyone, there will be some amount of restrictions. According to him, "we will have to restrict access in some respects because as you can imagine it is a highway and we cannot have everybody having an entrance on the highway from their house."
"Part and parcel of what we do in building roads is to concentrate heavily on the safety of our road users," continued Mr. Shaw. "We consider everyone who uses our roads as our customers and we want to ensure that you get the best quality in terms of safety and reliability."
