The Road To Destruction

Over the last few weeks, social media has been inundated with posts of the country’s deteriorating road network. An extended crisis, to say the least. Photos showed a section of Coleyville Avenue had caved in. Video footage showed a portion of Olympic Way had collapsed with a truck. The never-ending problems that affect Constant Spring Road and Maxfield Avenue have continued to persist. And probably the most memorable of all the events, the pipe that burst on Arthur Wint Drive just this week. This resulted in a portion of the road collapsing while a car was driving on it. Bear in mind that this is coming only weeks after a massive section of the Junction Main Road in St. Mary broke away.

Now all these happenings point to one problem – poor construction and maintenance of our roadways. However, this is leading to many more problems for the people of Jamaica. For too long residents who live in the areas served by Marcus Garvey Drive and Molynes Road have worried whenever there’s heavy rainfall. And although the hurricane season has yet to affect us severely the possibility lurks given, we are still in October and the season ends in November. But let us ignore the factor of bad, natural weather in the context of this discussion and focus on the more pressing issue of our bad, man-made roads.

Jamaica is often described as an 'SUV country'. And I always thought maybe that was tied to the success of our people and the show of wealth owning an SUV brings typically, but I may have been mistaken. As I analyse the state of our roads more deeply, I realise something. Maybe road users locally go for SUVs because they are the only vehicles competent enough to take on not only the off-road terrain but the main roadways as well. Roads across the island are decorated with potholes and sometimes trenches. The drainage systems are poorly engineered and built. And our own struggles with littering and solid waste management are not helping our plight.

Recently the government announced that they had allocated $4.6 billion to the construction of a new toll road from May Pen, Clarendon to Williamsfield, Manchester. I regularly travel between western rural Jamaica and Kingston. So, I welcome any road development that will make the journey more manageable, but what of the regular road network I ask? What about the roads that are used every day? These roads that experience the wear and tear of this use without any proper maintenance. What about the roads that are hastily built without appropriate planning and fall apart months after? What about the gullies that overflow with garbage and water when it rains?

There are more pressing issues relating to our road infrastructure than new highways. The government needs to invest in strengthening what already exists before seeking out 'the new'. There needs to be adequate assessment done before a construction projects begin. Geologists, urban planners, engineers, architects, contractors and all the necessary specialists must give their expert input before projects are greenlit. Members of parliament must be held accountable for ‘hurry-come-up’ road rehabilitation projects done in the name of securing votes. And the government must also ensure that their own projects and the ones being outsourced to external contractors use sufficient labour and quality materials that suit our climate and communities.

These problems with our roads are not new but have afflicted us for generations. In having conversations with my father, I have understood that the more things change, the more they remain the same. But suppose our governments continue to fail to act and civilians continue to refuse to do their part. In that case, conversations with my son may be the same. And we may very well continue down the road to destruction.