JAMAICA | Woodsville Bridge Crisis In Hanover Strands Rural Communities, Threatens Tourism in Western Jamaica

HOPEWELL, Hanover January 6, 2025 - A makeshift wooden crossing over the Cabarita River stands as a testament to rural Jamaican ingenuity – and government inaction – as communities in Hanover and Westmoreland enter their twenty-first month without a proper bridge, prompting urgent appeals for central government intervention.

People's National Party (PNP) Representative Andrea Purkiss has called on Minister without Portfolio Robert Nesta Morgan to address the collapsed Woodsville Bridge, which has severed a crucial artery connecting farming communities and cut off easy access to the popular Mayfield Falls tourist destination since April 2023.

In her appeal to Morgan, who oversees Works in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Purkiss painted a picture of communities forced to fend for themselves after watching their infrastructure literally crumble beneath them. "The collapse of this bridge has created significant hardship for our communities," she stated, noting that while residents have demonstrated "remarkable resilience" by constructing a temporary wooden crossing, such stopgap measures cannot endure.

The infrastructure failure has cast a long shadow over the region since April 2022, when authorities first declared the bridge unsafe and closed it to traffic. Despite these early red flags, no permanent solution was implemented before the structure's eventual collapse on Good Friday 2023.

While the National Works Agency has placed the bridge on their funding consideration list and completed initial assessments, Purkiss argues that the pace of bureaucratic response fails to match the urgency of the situation. 

The crisis has exposed the limitations of local governance structures, as the scope of replacement far exceeds the Hanover Municipal Corporation's financial and technical capabilities.

In a strategic move to accelerate the replacement process, Purkiss has cast a wider net for support, directing her appeal simultaneously to the Minister of Local Government and the Minister of Tourism. 

Her approach specifically targets potential funding through the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), highlighting the bridge's significance to the region's tourism infrastructure.

The collapse of Woodsville Bridge represents more than just a transportation inconvenience; it symbolizes a critical breakdown in rural infrastructure maintenance and emergency response. 

As local farmers face longer routes to markets and tourism operators grapple with limited access to Mayfield Falls, the temporary wooden crossing serves as a daily reminder of the urgent need for central government intervention in rural infrastructure projects.

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