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Eastern Westmoreland member of parliament Luther Buchanan says farmers, operators of public transportation and residents of St Leonard, Retrieve and March Man will benefit immensely from an investment of an approximately $66-million road rehabilitation work.

He says the roadworks, which will be supervised by the National Works Agency, is a welcome relief after years of lobbying on behalf of all those who use that stretch of road.

“I have managed to succeed in my lobbying to have that road repaired; however, it is the section from Retrieve to March Man that will be repaired in this phase, and I expect that to start within another month or so,” Buchanan told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Buchanan, who has been the member of parliament for the last 13 years, says the roads in these communities are in a deplorable state.

“The entire road network from Retrieve into St Leonard is actually the worst road in the Caribbean in my estimation, and for some years now we’ve been trying to get adequate funding to remove from remedial work to extensive major repairs,” Buchannan said.

“That, in and of itself, would provide relief to motorists, especially the public transport operators who use that road maybe 10 times per day; and citizenry who would have to use it in the morning and evenings, to and from work, so it is indeed a relief.

“It is also a major tourism link road into Seaford Town from Montego Bay, and a very useful road to our farmers in the inner lands of St Elizabeth and sections of Westmoreland getting their produce into Montego Bay, so it is a very critical piece of road to have in a good condition,” Buchanan added.

“Further to that, there has been a crime problem in that area to which the citizens have attributed the condition of the road to being an accessory to the ease of robberies,” Buchanan said.

“So I am happy on behalf of the citizenry that uses that road in those communities.”