Jamaica: Macro-Socio-Economic and Environmental Assessment of ...

National Works Agency (NWA) and by Parish councils. The storm surge caused heavy damage
to the highway connecting Kingston and Norman Manley international airport (See photograph
at right).
Floods and landslides cut off entire sections of roads; blocked and destroyed drains and culverts;
damaged and destroyed retaining walls and bridge approaches; and breached riverbanks and
deposited silt on river channels. As result of saturated soils, heavy rainfall and the eroding action
of river and streams, slippage of entire sections of roads occurred. High river stages and floods
scoured river channels and adjacent roads and related works. Roadway carpeting was badly
damaged and some of the major arterial roads that sustained damage and interruptions included
the following:
- Mandela Highway
- Mount Roser
- Constant Spring to Stony Hill
- Old Harbour road
- Montego Bay to Ocho Rios
- Ocho Rios to Faiths Pen, and
- Others in the corporate area.
Rehabilitation efforts of the NWA concentrated on clearing the roads to ensure at least singlelane
traffic, which was achieved by September 30. Work still continues in regard to repairs and
rehabilitation of Parish and other local roads.
Direct damage to the road system includes the cost of removing landslide material, repairing and
reconstruction of drainage and ancillary structures, repair and reconstruction of entire sections of
different types of roads, and the resurfacing of many roads. In addition, many vehicles were
carried away or destroyed by floods.
Indirect losses include the temporary interruption of passenger and cargo traffic in the road
network for three to five days, the slower than normal traffic in single lane roads, the use of
alternative and lower quality roads, and the increased transport cost due to deterioration of road
surfaces. No information on the volumes of traffic for the affected roads, or on the increased unit
transport costs in the case of lower quality road surfaces was available at the time of the
assessment. Therefore, it was not possible to undertake even an order-of-magnitude estimation of
these indirect effects – these are anticipated to be very high in monetary terms – that will have a
negative bearing on the population’s well-being. The costs of river training to protect the roads
from future damages were estimated as indirect losses.
Therefore, the total effect of the disaster on the road transport sector was estimated as $3199
(US$ 51.6 million), of which $2403 million refers to direct damage and the remaining $796
million represents the underestimated value of indirect losses. Imported equipment and materials
for the sector will have an estimated impact of $1280 million or its equivalent of US$20.6
million. (See Table 4-3.)
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