FOR DRIVERS streaking along at 110 kilometres per hour along the first completed section of Highway 2000, it may be a motorist's dream, with none of the congestion and irritating intersections to break their progress.The 15-kilometre stretch from Bushy Park in St. Catherine to Freetown in Clarendon has been welcomed by most who have used it.
For residents of one adjoining community, however, the highway has brought a disconcerting change in their life. Sharper Lane used to be one community. That was before the Old Harbour Bypass was constructed two years ago and later widened to become the first completed section of Highway 2000.
Now the several hundred residents who live on the southern side can only look across the wide expanse of the highway to their friends to the north.
It's taking a bit of getting used to for middle-aged Isolyn Walters.
"From I was a little girl we have this lane and we always communicate with the people on the other side. So we are fighting to get a walk-over here," she said.
"They say they will give us a walk-over but we not going to get it until the end of June."
TAKE CHANCES
Until then the Sharper Lane residents either take their chances scooting across the highway, which is illegal and dangerous, or walk east or west to the two overhead bridges which are closest to their community.
That, however, is not to the liking of Miss Walters and her neighbours. "The nearest walk-over is about a mile from here and that is too far; we cannot go so far just to walk over," she said.
When The Gleaner visited the community a crew dispatched by the highway managers was hard at work at the entrance to Upper Sharper Lane, welding shut a breach in the fence.
A small gathering of residents stood by, showing none of the hostility that is often associated with such situations, but clearly at a loss as to their options.
NO SHOP
"Boy, it tough on us; really hard! We don't even have a shop across this side so everything we have to go across the other side for it. And if we even a cross the road we have to run and sometimes tear up weself to escape from the police," explained 'Michelle' a young mother, who appeared to be speaking for most of the others, who nodded gravely in agreement.
"I even fall and tear up me foot one time," Michelle complained, showing a recent scar acquired while making a mad dash across the road through a hole in the fence in a bid to elude the police.
"We had a gate and dem teking off the gate and blocking the fence there. They say people leaving the gate open and letting their animals onto the road."
The problem of animals straying onto the road was tragically illustrated on November 19 when a Patrick Howell died after his vehicle struck a black cow that had ambled across his path.
That tragic incident has strengthened the resolve of the Highway Patrol, charged with the principal responsibility for enforcing the restrictions imposed on the use of the highway, under the Toll Roads Act.
CUTTING FENCE
"There is a real problem with residents cutting the fence and crossing the roadway illegally and we are determined to stamp it out," said Inspector Winston Brown of the Ferry Highway Patrol. In the most bizarre and frightening incident he said that a boy about four years old, was rescued by the police as he attempted to cross the dangerous roadway.
In keeping with the resolve of the police, Inspector Brown pointed to the dedicated 24-hour patrol system, which was in place, with two patrol cars confined to the roadway, in addition to which he said that a supervisor is sometimes on spot with a third vehicle available to assist.
Despite the resolve of the police, however, Inspector Brown conceded that they were having problems detecting the cutting of the fence, which he said took place mainly at night.
So far, he said, several persons have been arrested and fined for attempting to cross the roadway; but added that no one had been held so far for the much more serious offence of cutting the fence or destroying other property along the highway, which attract fines as high as $200,000.
ROAD DEATH
Howell's death has served as a sobering reminder to Sharper Lane resident Alrick Taylor that removing the barrier presents real dangers for both residents and motorists.
Nevertheless he maintains that the highway operators will have to come up with a solution to his community's isolation.
"We don't even have a shop in here so at night if we sick not even a Phensic we cyan go across the other side to buy!" he said.
"We know it's not right to cut the fence, but we can't do better; we don't even have a shop round here so."
The concerns of Sharper Lane have not gone unheeded. Trevor Jackson, managing director of TransJamaican Highway, in response to queries from The Gleaner, said community meetings were organised to sensitise the adjoining communities to the development.
In a frank admission of an oversight on the part of the developers, however, Jackson expressed surprise "that the need for that walk-over was not identified initially at Sharper Lane."
He says a bridge would be built, but said it would take "a few months", explaining that the steel structure would have to be fabricated overseas.
In the meantime, he said that the company was providing a limited transport service, taking students safely out of the community and on their way to school.
