Works Minister pledges further road repairs across Kingston and St. Andrew

Works Minister Robert Morgan says several roads in the corporate area are lined up for repairs, pointing to recent work on major Kingston routes as evidence that the government is answering motorists’ complaints.

Speaking at a Jamaica Labour Party Area One meeting in St. Andrew on Thursday evening, Morgan said he would not claim Jamaica’s roads are flawless. “I will not come here this evening and tell you that the roads in Jamaica are perfect. I too drop in the potholes,” he said.

With heavy rainfall easing across much of the island, he said state programmes including Spark and other patching crews are already at work on busy thoroughfares in the corporate area. The government, he added, continues to raise its annual spend on road infrastructure.

He cited the Boulevard as an example, saying motorists now find no potholes there because repairs have been completed. Further attention has also been promised for roads in parts of Northwestern St. Andrew, even though he said those corridors are not necessarily the duty of central government.

“I don’t [have] responsibility [for] parish council road[s]. But I cannot sit and watch the people of Northwestern St. Andrew suffer because the leadership of the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation don’t care about them,” Morgan said. He pledged to work with the Minister of Local Government and other Cabinet colleagues to show that central government cares about local government and about residents of Northwestern St. Andrew.

Morgan framed the road push as one part of a broader effort to upgrade ageing and deteriorating infrastructure. On the Boulevard corridor, he said the People’s National Party built the roadway without fixing the bridge and laid a pipe that was never connected. His administration, he said, will complete both jobs so motorists can move more quickly from Six Miles through Don Robin toward Barbican and the airport.