Collapsed bridge posing danger for residents

"Come over man, nutten nah do yuh," a young man shouted to this reporter as I, with much hesitation, made the first step down a slippery slope towards the river in Troy that borders northwestern Manchester and south Trelawny.

My knees wobbled as I precariously held on tightly to the bamboo and walked on the banked-up debris that forms a makeshift bridge across the river. What was a 45-second trod for a resident took me several minutes and by the time I had made it to the other side, I was drenched in perspiration.

This is the daily routine for persons who reside in the neighbouring parishes following the collapse of a bridge along the Troy-Oxford main road in August. A makeshift zipline transfers goods and even people between both districts. This the residents said is extremely dangerous as the edge of the bridge continues to break away.

"Mi brand new shoes wash offa mi foot and is a slippers mi haffi a wear now. When the river come down it usually cover the bridge so if it come down now, people just have to stay where they are. Everybody get knock until tings normalise. A whole heap a little pickney we have to carry on we back go cross a day time," a man told the news team.

THE STAR also came across a group of men who sat at a corner shop in Troy. One of them said he had to park his vehicle in Trelawny and journey across the river to visit his friends and family in Troy. Their Christmas celebrations are looking bleak, they said, as they will be unable to attend the much anticipated Grand Market in Mandeville on December 24.

"We usually go a Grand Market and spend Christmas a Mandeville but dat nago gwan this year because the journey ago too long fi we take the next route. By the time we do that it ago be curfew time. Dem time here a when market people make dem little money but dat can't really gwan now. Everybody a feel it, the taximan dem and just everybody. Imagine when we have funeral over there. We just cannot cross the river with the dead so we have to use Mile Gully side and that take forever. Some big people with money just need to come and fix the issue," Krishna Bloomfield said.

Built in 1869, the bridge has been used by thousands of persons seeking shorter routes as they traverse sections of Trelawny, Manchester and St Elizabeth. Some alternate routes as much as 60 miles longer. But the structure, according to Broomfield, has done its time.

"When this bridge was built, it was during slavery so it was built for horse and buggies and pedestrians. Now vehicles such as heavy trucks are driving on it and it wasn't constructed with steel and other sturdy material so we are just lucky that it lasted this long. Thankfully, no one was on it when it collapsed. It has done overtime and we just need a new bridge now," said Bloomfield.

National Works Agency Communication and Customer Services Manager, Stephen Shaw, said plans are under way to have the matter resolved.

"We are doing the technical work now and financing is to be voted on by the Government soon but we are surveying now," he said.