Lucea’s Riley River Bridge to be replaced

MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Government has unveiled plans to replace the century-old Riley River Bridge (also called Lucea West Bridge), which has been identified as a major contributor to frequent flooding in the coastal town of Lucea during heavy rainfall. The cost of the project, currently in its early stages, is yet to be determined.

“We’re going to build a bridge. A big part of the issue with that bridge is that it’s a bottleneck. It’s a bottleneck because there’s a lot of silting, because of the depth — the width between the river and the bottom of the bridge, and also because of the height of the river. Whenever the debris comes, it blocks the path, so water cannot go through,” explained minister without portfolio with responsibility for works Robert Nesta Morgan.

He was responding to queries from the Jamaica Observer during a water and road projects stakeholder engagement meeting held at Pier 1 in Montego Bay, St James, on Tuesday afternoon.