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ONCE again, the Bog Walk gorge — that problematic road that forms part of the major link between Kingston and the north coast — is impassable.
Once again, the reason for this inconvenience is heavy rain from a storm.
Once again, the people who live in the gorge communities will be left without transportation.
Once again, taxpayers will be forced to pay millions, probably billions, of dollars — based on the extent of the damage this time — to repair this road.
Once again, we ask why?
Why does it have to come to this every year? We have raised the question so often that we have actually lost count. We hold firmly to the belief that the Bog Walk gorge, with its susceptibility to flooding, landslides and surface damage, is unsuitable to remain the main route between Jamaica’s capital and the north coast.
Too often the surface has either been so badly damaged that it has had to be closed for repair, or heavy rain has led to the road being flooded, thus making it dangerous for motorists.
It happened last October when showers from a severe weather system triggered rock and mud slides that left the road blocked. The flood waters from the Rio Cobre also washed away significant portions of the road surface and destroyed sections of the retaining walls.
We still shudder when we recall the frantic cries for help from Ms Pearline Holder, a 63-year-old Jamaican who was visiting from London and who was among more than 50 people trapped in the gorge by flood waters that had already washed away some motor vehicles.
“I’m scared,” the lady told our reporter via cellphone. “We’re just waiting on someone to come and help us. Right now I’m sitting in water. The water in the car has come all the way up to the seat. There are loads of cars and trucks and children screaming all over the place.”
Thankfully, Jamaica Defence Force soldiers were able to rescue Ms Holder and 53 other people, preventing what would likely have turned into a major tragedy.
We have often wondered whether a major tragedy is what will be required to jolt the authorities into accepting the danger of maintaining the use of this road and acknowledging that they need to provide a suitable alternative as quickly as possible.
For certainly, we haven’t got from the plans to build the Spanish Town to Ocho Rios leg of Highway 2000 a sense of urgency as it relates to the dangers of the Bog Walk gorge.
We have argued in this space before that we believe it was more important to have started work on the Spanish Town to Linstead leg of the highway first, instead of what is now being done — the Mount Rosser segment.
We accept that the Mount Rosser segment may be more heavily traversed — an estimated 4,095 motor vehicles daily we were told last year — and that may translate into attractive toll revenue. And given our support for Highway 2000 which, we believe, offers tremendous potential for the island’s development, we would not wish to deny the operators the money needed to maintain that infrastructure.
However, we hold that the preservation of life trumps the collection of revenue which, ironically, is being needlessly spent each year on repairing the gorge road.
It is not too late, we think, to revisit this plan and start work that will eliminate the use of the gorge much sooner than later.
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