Slow movement on Spring Mount road repairs

SPRING MOUNT, St James — A soil test is among the items to be done before the State-run National Works Agency (NWA) can finalise a design to rebuild Spring Mount road in south St James. Last October’s Hurricane Melissa caused two major breakaways on the heavily trafficked route, leaving commuters with the choice of engaging in risky road use or a much longer, more costly journey.

With schools about to reopen, residents of Spring Mount and neighbouring areas have become increasingly anxious for an update on what is being done to fix the road. They were given the clearest signal, Thursday evening, that the road will likely be rebuilt in the same location; but there was no timeline on when work will start.

“We are looking to build back the road. We have looked at different possibilities and I can tell you straight up, one of the things that we are looking at is to take down the hillside and acquire [those] two houses on top of the hill,” manager of communication and customer services at the National Works Agency (NWA) Stephen Shaw told residents during a meeting held at Spring Mount Basic School.