Bushy Park bridge a ‘priority’, says NWA

Stephen Shaw, manager of communications and customer services at the NWA, provided the update on Radio Jamaica’s On Our Roads programme, a weekly feature sponsored by the NWA. He stated that the Bushy Park bridge is now a priority under a national initiative to replace approximately 50 bridges across the island.

“Bushy Park bridge is on the list of priority bridges to be done,” Shaw said during the broadcast on the Sunnyside Up morning show with Paula-Ann Porter-Jones and Derrick Wilks. “You would have heard an announcement been made about some 50 bridges to be replaced across the country; the Bushy Park bridge is one of them. The programme recently went through the first approval phase and we are now moving along with it.”

The announcement offers a glimmer of hope for a community that has been stuck “back at square one” since the Category 4 hurricane swept through the parish. As previously reported by Old Harbour News in February 2025, the destruction of the original bridge has effectively isolated the eastern side of Bushy Park. Residents have been forced to undertake long, costly, and sometimes dangerous journeys to access essential services.

In a display of resourcefulness born of frustration, locals twice built a makeshift wooden footbridge, the second construction coming after the passage of Hurricane Melissa in October of last year. However, that structure is far from ideal, with limited weight capacity and questionable durability against further heavy rains or flooding. 

The situation had been further complicated by slow government response times. Mayor of St. Catherine, Norman Scott, had previously indicated that estimates were made but no timeline was provided. Resident Julius Maragh had grimly predicted that, given standard procurement procedures, a replacement might not arrive until 2027.

The NWA’s latest statement is the first official confirmation that the project is no longer stalled in assessment. However, Shaw did not provide a specific start date or completion timeline for the Bushy Park bridge, only noting that the programme is moving through its approval phases.

The announcement comes amid broader scrutiny of infrastructure spending in less commercially prominent areas. The community’s ongoing struggle serves as a reminder of the stark reality facing vulnerable parishes after natural disasters, as residents continue to balance hope with the hard-won skepticism born from months of uncertainty.

For now, the people of Bushy Park remain in a state of limbo — relieved that their plight has been acknowledged as a national priority, but still waiting for the heavy machinery to arrive and end their isolation for good.