Snail’s pace work on Llandewey bridge leaves residents furious

Having been forced to utilise a rugged and lonely track that was created as a detour for the past five months, residents of Llandewey and surrounding areas in St Thomas are being told they have to wait for another four to six weeks for construction to be completed on a bridge that runs through the community.

The National Works Agency (NWA) closed a section of the main road in Llandewey on June 19 to facilitate the replacement of a severely defective box culvert bridge. At the time, the roads and works body said the new bridge would be in place within three months. However, work on the bridge has been progressing at near snail's pace, and the patience of road users has worn thin.

"Is a shame!," said Kitson Burgher, a resident of Richmond, one of the many communities served by the bridge.

Like the many road users, he bemoaned the fact that vehicles have been forced to use the rugged and lonely detour road for several months. He told THE WEEKEND STAR that some taxi operators are reluctant to use the roadway during times of heavy rainfall, and this results in commuters being stranded for extended periods.

For Elliston Small, a resident and taxi operator who plies the Poor Man's Corner to Cedar Valley route, driving through the detour route for such an extended period feels ridiculous.

"It really nah move. This thing could a done fi di period a time, and should a done," Small said.

He also said that the poor condition of the detour road has resulted in him making fewer trips, and this has affected his income.

For 20-year-old bar owner Thallere Finn, the closure has been a serious struggle, because she lives on the other side of the bridge. She said that unlike in the past when she would walk to her house some 10 minutes away, she now has to take a taxi, which has to use the alternative route, or risk getting hurt by walking through a gully near the work site with her child on her side.

"It hard fi cross the bridge sometimes, especially like now when rain fall and the water come dung. Yuh affi go over early suh yuh reach dung before night come dung," Finn said.

She said that walking through the gully at night is frightening and dangerous, because there are no lights to illuminate the area.

"It scary, yeah, suh yuh affi have flashlight. Sometimes yuh have people weh will help yuh wid light or help yuh cross, but it risky."

Contacted by THE WEEKEND STAR, Stacy Ann Delevante, senior communications officer at the NWA, sought to explain the delay in completing the project.

"What I am being told is that the delays are as a result of equipment failure that would have happened at two separate points of the project, and that they were also impeded by weather conditions,"

Delevante said.

She added that based on her discussion with the project supervisor, the project is expected to be completed within six weeks.