Tropical Storm Nicole - Planning Institute of Jamaica

Company (JUTC) infrastructure. A further $27.9 million in losses was incurred by the
JUTC. Of the estimated $14 billion damage to roads and bridges, $1.42 billion represents
the preliminary cost to reopen blocked roads. Cleaning and reconstruction of retaining walls
of the Sandy Gully bridge accounted for 32.7 per cent (J$4.6 billion) of the total cost of
damage to the road infrastructure. A total of 543 main roads were impacted with St.
Thomas accounting for $1,542.2 million or 11 per cent of the total cost of the damage.
Another $1.9 billion was allocated to river training (Table 23).
a) Road transport
The road infrastructure fared the worst from the impact of the tropical storm. The heavy
rains resulted in flooding, landslides, breakaway and scouring of primary road routes. The
devastation was across all parishes with Westmoreland, St. Elizabeth and Hanover faring the
worst. Approximately 543 main roads across all parishes, river training works, drainage
structures and gullies were affected by the flood rains (see Table 23, Figure 16). Significant
damage was done to the Sandy Gully and river systems as well as the fording at the Dry
River Bridge in Harbour View, St. Andrew. In addition, the Mandela Highway was reduced
to single lane as the west-bound lane was inundated, the Bog Walk Gorge was also flooded
and the Junction Road, St Mary was closed mainly due to landslides. Emergency responses
aimed at clearing roads as well as other access-related activities were activated islandwide.
JUTC – Physical damage to the JUTC’s four depot was minimal, estimated at $200 000,
accounted for fully by damage at the Greater Portmore lay-by. However, the company
sustained loss in revenue. The estimated loss in revenue during the initial one-week period
of the event amounted to $25.0 million. This is calculated based on the average daily
revenue for each depot minus the actual revenue made during the one week period. All
routes were affected, but the routes most affected were Greater Portmore.
Operation losses were due to road conditions which limited the amount of cycle trips. Some
routes, for example, the number 53 – Half-Way-Tree to Above Rocks – were inoperable,
while the 54 – the Half-Way-Tree to Border- was about 30.0 per cent operable up to
October….
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