Major road collapse; councillor calls for help

Peoples National Party Caretaker for North East St. Elizabeth, Zuleika Jess is calling on the Member of Parliament Noel Slowly to mobilize the funds needed to repair a major road way that collapsed during the passage of Tropical Storm, Rafael.

The Raheen Main Road that connects the major towns of Maggoty and Balaclava to the southern portion of the parish collapsed after the area was inundated by rainwater.

This has forced hundreds of persons trying to get to Santa Cruz and into Kingston to traverse the private and unsafe cane piece road.

In a Facebook live and a video release Jess said it “is the only roadway that connects the two major communities of Siloah, Maggoty to Balaclava without having to go a long circuitous route.”

She noted that Siloah Division Councillor Audie Myers had been speaking about the deteriorating condition of the roadway for in excess of two and a half years to no avail.

“We're using this opportunity to call on the relevant authorities and particularly the Member of Parliament (Delroy Slowly) who has not visited the area since the road has collapsed, he has not responded to the issues that had been raised from months and years ago, alerting him as to the problem that we have here with the poor state of the roadway,” she said.

The Caretaker pointed out that if there no money left in the emergency fund then the MP should reach out to the National Works Agency for assistance as the collapse roadway is under the authority of the NWA.

“We have children who have to be going to school, we have farmers who will need to traverse the roadway and when you put them to travel through the alternative roadway which is not a government road, it is actually a private estate road through the sugar cane, it is a dangerous alternative route,” she said.

Jess is also concerned that transport operators may use the situation to demand an increase in fare.  “When fares increase, people are already feeling the economic burden and so things are only going to get more and more expensive because it's going to pass on.

The farmers will have to pass it on to us as the taxi drivers may have to pass it on to the passengers. We're really appealing to the relevant authority, to the Minister of Works because this is a situation that had been brought to the attention of the government before and so we're appealing to them to reach out to the National Works Agency and have the requisite funding be put in place so as to address what is clearly a clear and present danger,” Jess said.