Garth Rattray | Our rough and tumble primary arterial roadways

It was Saturday on the Easter Holiday weekend. Joan and I decided to take the scenic route from Kingston, through places like Spanish Town, the Bog Walk Gorge, Bog Walk, Linstead, Ewarton, over the mountains, Moneague, Walker’s Wood, then through Fern Gully and into Ocho Rios. We looked forward to experiencing nature up close and personal. We wanted to feel the cool morning air and smell the plants and soil as we drove by. But that decision turned out to be a huge mistake. It was a good thing that I was driving a pickup with rugged suspension, large wheels and tyres.

Although I was never wary of driving through the Bog Walk Gorge when it is not raining, I must admit to a smidgen of apprehension since seeing several recent videos of various types of vehicles plunging into the river, sometimes leading to fatalities. Nonetheless, I negotiated the gorge safely and continued my journey.

The roadway was narrower than usual in many places, because the verges were all overgrown. We wondered who is responsible for trimming back the bushes, the danger that they posed was very evident. The surface was generally bumpy, uneven, and jarring in places, but the real excitement occurred when we hit many extended patches of huge potholes, gouges, and craters scattered from the approach to Moneague and continuing for many kilometres.

There was absolutely no way to circumvent them. Consequently, traffic crawled to a halt on numerous occasions. The pickup would roll into holes, lurch back and forth, roll side to side, and climb out of the holes repeatedly. I felt sorry for the people who were driving regular motor vehicles. I kept thinking, we don’t deserve this.

PAINFUL

It was painful to watch the cars, pickups, sports utility vehicles, and trucks rock and roll all over the place. Vehicles were moving to the ‘shook, shimmy and shake’, ‘boogie-woogie’, ‘dip-and-fall-back’, ‘rock steady’, ‘pon di rivah – pon di bank’, ‘shake your booty’, ‘Billy bounce’, and the ‘the jerk’.

Throughout the journey, I wondered why the people of Jamaica were being subjected to this veritable torture. How could any government feel comfortable providing its citizens with such horrendous roads? It was disrespectful and insulting to have major roadways so badly in need of rehabilitation. It was obvious that no one truly cares about how road-users fare. If anyone in authority cared, no major roadway, especially one that links the south to the north coast, could exist in such a state of disrepair.

The agreements with the highway operators forbid the construction of any roadway that could compete with the nearby highway. But this is no competition, it is worse than a poor alternative. The experience was far more than discouraging, it was deterring. Drivers could either use the exorbitant North South (Luxury) Highway, or face discomfort, innumerable potholes, trenches, and craters. The battering that vehicles get negotiating that primary arterial roadway is simply horrendous.

It is interesting that the powers that be responsible for maintaining, repairing, and upgrading these horrible roads remain silent while our citizens suffer. Telling the nation of future plans to fix the roads gives little comfort to the many who simply cannot afford the exorbitant North South (Luxury) Highway and must be punished in the here and now.

It is interesting that some are saying that the needy roadways will be fixed under the SPARK road rehabilitation programme later this year. It is also interesting that the general elections are due later this year. Of course, come hell or high water, the roads will be repaired before those elections. In fact, in all probability, they will be repaired close enough to the elections so that everyone will remember that the work was done by the incumbent administration.

TAKING FOR GRANTED

To be very candid, driving on that ‘primary arterial roadway’ made me feel as if the government is taking us for granted. It was as if the citizens of Jamaica will accept whatever they are given. It felt insulting and demeaning. We are paying regular taxes and special taxes on fuel specifically for the provision of better roadways.

Curiosity led me to try the infamous Junction primary arterial roadway on our return trip to Kingston. There was some upgrading work done on the northern end of that main roadway. It is the only other route that allows drivers to take a main roadway, other than the exorbitant North South (Luxury) Highway, to get to and from the north and south of the island from Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine.

It just so happens that there was a fatality on the Castleton section of that primary arterial roadway that same weekend. A group of medical doctors was travelling northerly when the driver swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and tumbled over a precipice. It was not surprising that such a thing happened. The Junction roadway is narrow and allows only single-lane traffic in several places. It is very winding with many blind corners. Rocks and boulders stick out on one side, while dangerous precipices await you on the next.

Traversing the Junction is not just a journey, it is always an adventure. It is bumpy, rough, foreboding and downright dangerous … but it is the primary arterial roadway that we are given to drive on if we want to go directly from St. Andrew to the north coast and vice-versa. Certainly, we deserve better – surely, we are worth more than just votes at election time.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com