Res­i­dents of Garth Road, Williamsville want some of the $883 mil­lion al­lo­cat­ed for the up­grade and ex­pan­sion of road and bridges to be spent in their com­mu­ni­ty.

They plead­ed with Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan for help.

When res­i­dents awoke yes­ter­day, they found parts of the road slip­ping and a col­lapsed bridge.

They said they were tired of be­ing ne­glect­ed and burned de­bris across the road, de­mand­ing that their prob­lems be ad­dressed soon. Many of the adults in the com­mu­ni­ty stayed away from work, while some school chil­dren joined the protest as they said the road was im­pass­able.

Po­lice stood by and watched as the res­i­dents protest­ed. It was al­so a chal­lenge for the po­lice ve­hi­cles to nav­i­gate the road.

Ben Lomond/Hard Bar­gain/ Williamsville coun­cil­lor Vashti Sookoo said that the mem­bers of Par­lia­ment who rep­re­sent the Garth Road com­mu­ni­ty have tried to as­sist and this prompt­ed a vis­it by Sinanan in Au­gust 2017.

But since then, the road and bridges have de­te­ri­o­rat­ed fur­ther. Sookoo said a rup­tured WASA line was part­ly re­spon­si­ble for the con­tin­u­ous ero­sion of the road and con­stant floods that dam­age the bridges.

“This col­laps­ing bridge, to­geth­er with two ma­jor un­der-cross­ings, are col­laps­ing right now. Al­so, there is dam­age to an­oth­er bridge and the land­slip we are see­ing in front of us… I have been bom­bard­ed every day, as the coun­cil­lor for the area, by res­i­dents whose ve­hi­cles have been break­ing down and be­ing dam­aged. This morn­ing is the re­sult of it be­cause the land­slip took place be­tween last night and this morn­ing.

“Res­i­dents could not go to work and chil­dren could not go to school. They have tak­en it up­on them­selves to do what they are do­ing now. I am plead­ing with the Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan, please have a heart for Garth Road res­i­dents,” Sookoo said.

Ac­cord­ing to the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme for 2019, the Road Con­struc­tion/Ma­jor Road Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Project will fo­cus on works through­out the coun­try.

This in­cludes the im­ple­men­ta­tion of traf­fic man­age­ment mea­sures, pro­vi­sion of al­ter­na­tive ac­cess routes, re­in­state­ment and sta­bil­i­sa­tion of failed slopes and im­prove­ment of ex­ist­ing road in­fra­struc­ture with an al­lo­ca­tion of $140 mil­lion.

How­ev­er, Williamsville is not in­clud­ed in the key projects tar­get­ed for 2019.

The Bridges Re­con­struc­tion Pro­gramme in­cludes the re­con­struc­tion of 37 bridges.

The ar­eas for which re­con­struc­tion work are card­ed in­cludes St Joseph, Cu­napo, To­co, Blan­chisseuse, Freeport, Tal­paro and San Fer­nan­do.

Un­der the Land­slip Re­pair Pro­gramme, works will con­tin­ue on eight land­slips and de­sign works will be­gin for 60 land­slips.