St Joseph residents told tales of woe yesterday following the closure of Melvin Hill Bridge on Monday due to structural failure as Government officials scrambled to find alternative routes for them to get to and from their homes.
The Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW), in a release, warned that the bridge, a main artery to many parts of St Joseph and St Andrew, was collapsing and would be closed until further notice “to ensure public safety” after a gaping hole emerged.
Yesterday evening, Genetha Holder was making the trek from her family’s home on Parks Road to the top of Melvin Hill, where she had parked. Holder said she lives in St George but is staying in St Joseph for a family reunion. Now, with the bridge in shambles, she is returning home.
“For years, we have been complaining about this bridge. The Chinese were working on it last month and heavy trucks were passing all the time, so we saw this coming. You could see it dropping all the time,” she told the MIDWEEK NATION.
Holder is now worried about what would happen should anyone need emergency help.
“My mother is 95, God forbid something happens to her. This morning, I left home at 5:30 a.m. to get to work on time. It is not easy. So I hope they work on it soon,” she said.
Christina Smith, who lives at the bottom of Melvin Hill, said the closure was a major inconvenience for her family.
“I work in St Michael and my mother works in St Philip, and going around adds half an hour to the drive since Bridgefield is also closed.”
Smith also hoped the bridge would soon be repaired, adding she too, had seen the deterioration happening.
“Over the past few months, there was heavy equipment driving over the hill to fix Coggins Hill (in St Andrew). Then there were heavy rains and trees falling, so all that had me concerned.”
Romario Grant said Melvin Hill was a “very critical road” for St Andrew and St Joseph, and the effect of its closure was exacerbated by the loss of the Bruce Vale bridge.
“I had to walk the whole length with my two children to get a van. I hope they let the public know because I see a 4X4 that drive through already,” he said.
Malcolm Bailey is hoping a shuttle service will be deployed, while Laurie Cumberbatch said his daughter had to take a longer route to get to work, but he was looking on the bright side.
Inconvenience
“It is an inconvenience, but at least we still have life. We just have to try our best,” he said.
Government officials, led by Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw, staff of the Transport Board and Member of Parliament for St Joseph Dale Marshall, met with the media on site yesterday. Bradshaw noted how important Melvin Hill was to the surrounding communities, adding a shuttle system was in the works.
“We recognise in the Ministry that this main artery needed to be done, but the difficulty and the challenges in the Scotland District are that it is not straightforward in terms of doing any of the construction of the roads.
Alternative routes
“We are trying to find various ways in which to find alternative routes for the residents of this community and the surrounding areas,” she said.
“Initially, we would have rerouted the buses to be able to allow for a commute that would obviously be a bit longer, but we recognised that we needed to make sure that people could still get to and from their destination.
“So, while the route is longer, and we accept that that is an inconvenience. Equally, we are putting our heads together to be able to find other routes across the St Joseph area that can take not only the size and the capacity of the buses, but also that are safe for commuters to be able to utilise.
“The reality is that many of the roads in St Joseph that we are currently doing work on, many of those roads are at various stages of construction,” she added.
The minister said she had asked Chinese contractors COMPLANT to complete the road as quickly as possible, adding they were willing to divert resources from other roads if necessary to get Melvin Hill back in order. Marshall said the Melvin Hill Bridge was more than 80 years old and built to outdated standards, adding its collapse occurred just when many other access points were unsuitable for heavy traffic.
“On the positive side, he said the COMPLANT team was conducting testing on the bridge just before the cave-in, so redesigns were already at an advanced stage.
“The most important thing I want to assure my constituents is that the work which was beginning on this bridge is now going to be advanced, so that we are going to be able, hopefully, to start the actual demolition of the bridge, then preparatory work, and then ultimately reconstruction. I am optimistic [this will begin] within another two months, maybe three.
“So, it’s going to take some more time, but I am confident that we are getting there. I want to thank MTW for putting in that investment in ensuring that [the] precursors to actually doing construction are finished.
“So, I just want to assure my constituents that these things are in train, and I hope that within a 12-month period, we’ll be looking at a brand new, wider, safer and certainly more attractive bridge here at Melvin Hill,” he said. (CA)
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