Deserted roads and empty bars - Community faces financial crisis as traffic shifts to new highway

Glued to her cell phone streaming a high-drama African movie blasting through speaker boxes, the bartender of a popular spot in 11 Miles, St Thomas, chills with a pillow and a nine-foot pool table serving as a bed.

That is how, she said, she spends most of her daytime shifts at the spot since the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) began, diverting vehicular traffic away from the area.

"The place just boring a daytime. Boring bad. Me nuh lef fi do nothing else," the bartender said. It was 1 p.m. on a Friday, and the bartender had yet to 'bruk her ducks' for a sale. The roadway was similar to a deserted island, with little to no cars passing by. Residents, likewise, were nowhere in sight. The only company the bartender had was the rustling breeze, gently brushing through the trees at the front of the bar.

"From dem make up the highway, nuhbody nah pass yah suh. A one and two man will stop by the bar a daytime but a nuh like dem a stay long. Nothing nah really gwaan," she said, fluffing her pillow.

"Me a tell the truth, me can sleep fi all a hour sometime and nobody nuh come bother me. That fi show yuh how slow things are."

Jesheca of D & J One Stop Shop, located just a stone's throw away, lamented about the lack of motorists along the thoroughfare starting at 10 Miles, where the SCHIP begins. Business, according to this shopkeeper, has taken a downward turn, resulting in her losing profits - and interest in keeping the business afloat. She argued that before the start of the highway construction, she could easily make $20,000 a day.

"Sometime me barely make $5,000 or even $3,000, much less now. Some days me not even come out because it nuh make sense. We deh back a God right now and we a suffer," Jesheca told the news team. She is even losing produce.

"Me normally coulda sell off 60 jelly [coconuts] in a week, and now, if me buy 20, dem can stay here and spoil pon me," Jesheca said, adding that she relies on the support from residents. Another shopkeeper shared that he previously earned big bucks from passers-by who smoke high-grade weed.

"Me used to sell all a pound a 'kush' wid ease. But now, me affi buy smaller amount fi resale because nobody nah come round here again, nobody nuh member we. When me see the day a move slow, me just go my yard go sleep," he said.