by LISA KING
RESIDENTS OF JOE’S RIVER, St Joseph, are concerned that the work on the bridge there has taken so long that it may not be completed in time for the active part of the hurricane season.
Norma Noel, a resident of Joe’s River for 44 years, said that with the rain yesterday the problems with the bridge had worsened. On Monday, Noel had reported that both roads were impassable, with the temporary [mud] road no longer usable because of the rainfall.
She related what happened to her one day as she was returning from attending the doctor because of a puncture at the bottom of her left foot. The Horse Hill bus put her at the entrance to the broken bridge, and she was forced to hop across a narrow path over the bridge through the muddy water, getting the wound wet, against the advice of her doctor.
An irate Noel said residents were cut off from everything and everyone else down there. “If we have an emergency in this area, no emergency vehicle can get to us with the road in this condition . . . only four-wheel drive vehicles can manoeuvre on it,” she said.
Noting that the area was represented by Dale Marshall of the Opposition Barbados Labour Party, Noel called on the Government to put aside politics and do what was best for the residents.
Noel’s sister Joyce said: “When I come out to work, I have to walk through this mud. I either have to leave home with an extra pair of shoes or cover my feet with plastic bags.”
Eric Eastmond, who has been living there for 71 years, said the condition of the road had affected him as he could no longer ply his greengrocer trade at the foot of the bridge, something he said he had been doing for about 15 years. “My business shut down. I cannot do anything when the rain falls and even worse when the sun out because of the dust,” he said.
Eastmond also claimed that the length of time that it now took to travel through the area caused many other businesses to suffer.
He said the bridge was started in January, but although the temporary road had been cut two months later, no marl had yet been laid, so the soil usually washed down onto the bridge. He was of the view that if marl was put on the temporary road it would help solve some of the problems.
Eastmond said the mud had caused lots of problems as workers from the Ministry of Transport and Works could not get any work done in those conditions. “The project is now stalled when it should have been completed before the heavy rains came. With the rains that we are having now, there is no certainty that much more work will be done,” he said.
