Taylor Land, St Andrew residents rejoice over new concrete road

Residents of Taylor Land in St Andrew rejoiced yesterday after a new concrete road was commissioned in the area to improve access.

The road was repaved by Carib Cement at a cost of $7 million, as part of its community outreach initiative.

The commissioning was done by Member of Parliament for East Rural St Andrew Juliet Holness, Yago Castro, Managing Director, Carib Cement and Andre Nelson, Industrial and Building Solutions Manager, Carib Cement on Thursday.

Community members say the road was in a deplorable condition before Holness took over political representation of the area.

“Taylor Land is heavy PNP [People's National Party], but it is a part of my constituency, part of my family. Bobo Hill is the same, heavy PNP, it did not matter,” Holness said.

“They have come to the conclusion that yes they have a good member of parliament, but a part of them see me campaigning in green, so they figure that I am going to do like people have done in the past, only focus on communities that vote for the Jamaica Labour Party,” she continued, noting that she believes in representing all her constituents.

Nelson said Carib Cement wants to play its part in uplifting communities.

“I remember when we came out to look at this one it was just a dirt track...and I saw the asphalt on this side and we said it's a good fit as the member of parliament recommended that we could take on this one,” he said.

He said for durability, concrete was the better solution.

“The reality is that when you do a concrete solution you get the opportunity to make things more uniform... This solution is going to be there for at least 40, 60 years and possibly 100 years, so why not just pay once, fix it once and leave it for a lifetime,” he said.

Another new concrete road will soon be commissioned in the nearby community of Bobo Hill.

- Ainsworth Morris

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