The Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources has completed a temporary road around the abandoned bridge at Bawdens, St Andrew.
Personnel from that ministry, assisted by operators and equipment from the Soil Conservation Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security, installed drainage pipes and a temporary road surface over the riverbed, providing a new access to residents of surrounding districts.
The temporary crossing is designed to minimise the chances of the run-off from heavy rainfall damaging it or washing it away.
On Friday Bawdens, St Andrew residents complained that they were seriously inconvenienced because their bridge was closed suddenly leaving them without easy access to homes and businesses.
Member of Parliament for St Andrew and Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources, Romel Springer, explained yesterday in a statement issued from the Prime Minister’s Office that once engineers in the ministry determined that it was no longer safe to allow traffic over the bridge, they moved with dispatch to find a temporary solution to alleviate the considerable inconvenience.
He stressed that the work at Bawdens was just part of a much larger multi-million-dollar programme that will address many of the road infrastructural problems, not just in St Andrew, but across the Scotland District.
“In the coming weeks, residents across the Scotland District will witness a hive of activity that will not just see roads being fixed, but a number of the bridges that are now a cause for concern. This is activity that will take place over a span of about three years, and will revitalise the road infrastructure in these parishes,” the release quoted Springer as saying. (PR)
