Port Royal Street debacle
Published:Saturday | July 12, 2025 | 12:10 AM
The poor state of Port Royal Street in the vicinity of Digicel and approaching the KFC outlet in downtown Kingston has created a myriad of problems for motorists and commuters alike.
The deteriorating road condition, apparently worsened by sewage which settles on more than half of the roadway near a bus stop on the busy thoroughfare, has been a headache for persons who use that road on a daily basis.
Motorists who use Port Royal Street to leave the city are bedevilled by gridlock as they try to navigate a huge pothole filled with sewage that becomes a nightmare to unsuspecting drivers whose vehicles fall in it.
The road reduces to a single lane where the sewage settles in the pothole. This is also an accident waiting to happen as drivers have to swerve to the right to avoid the massive hole and creating near misses.
To make matters worse, commuters have to move swiftly to avoid being splashed by sewage as motorists sometimes speed along the roadway.
The problem has been ongoing for months, one commuter told The Gleaner yesterday.
Asked to give her thoughts on the conditions faced by motorists and commuters using Port Royal Street, a commuter who gave her name as Cherry said: “It bad, it bad, it bad, it can’t badder. Mi see a van a short while ago and when it guh down (in the pothole) mi never know it ago come back up.”
DEPLORABLE STATE
Another commuter, who was standing at the bus stop, said the deplorable state of the road and the running sewage have plagued road users for more than three months.
“It need to fix. It should not remain in this condition for much longer,” he declared.
Stephen Shaw, corporate communications manager at the National Works Agency (NWA), acknowledged that Port Royal Street was in need of rehabilitation but noted that his agency could not carry out those repairs until the sewage problem is fixed.
“There are two sections of Port Royal Street where sewer lines are impacting the state of the corridor,” Shaw said, adding that the National Water Commission (NWC) has to carry out repairs to the sewerage infrastructure.
Shaw told The Gleaner that the NWA had done repairs twice to the section of Port Royal Street close to KFC but the roadway was damaged after as a result of a defective sewer system.
The Gleaner sought comment from the NWC on what steps are being made to repair the sewerage infrastructure.
Delano Williams, acting corporate and public relations manager at the NWC, said he would carry out checks to determine when repairs to the sewer system on Port Royal Street would be addressed.