This is what is left of the road through Harrison Town just on the outskirts of Fern Gully. Rehabilitation work is set to start next year.- photo by Carl Gilchrist

OCHO RIOS, St Ann:

A section of the road leading through Ocho Rios' long-standing tourist attraction, Fern Gully, is to be concreted similarly to parts of the Bog Walk gorge.

According to Stephen Shaw, communications manager at the National Works Agency (NWA): "We will be putting in a rigid pavement, that is concrete, on a section of about one-and-a-half kilometres long. We also have to do some significant improvement regarding drainage, with over one kilometre of U-drain to be put in."

Additionally, sections of the road will be realigned, which may require the acquisition of adjacent properties, Shaw revealed.

The proposed repairs to the Fern Gully form part of a wider plan to rehabilitate and restore the roads leading from the district of Colegate, situated just above Fern Gully, down to Milford Road in Ocho Rios, totalling about 3.6 kilometres.

A culvert on Milford Road is also to be given attention.

contracts out

Shaw said the contracts had already been put to tender but work was not expected to begin until early in 2009.

Several sections of the road leading from Milford Road up through Fern Gully have been in a deplorable condition for several months. The decline in the condition of the road was triggered by severe flooding in April and made worse by subsequent showers.

Several residents in Milford, Harrison Town and Green Pond have voiced their disgust at the length of time it was taking for repairs to be carried out.

There are several potholes in some areas of Fern Gully while in others, the road is uneven, as several upper layers of pavement have been washed away.

Along Milford Road and Harrison Town Road, both leading to Fern Gully, there are several areas where the road has been completely eroded.

- Carl Gilchrist