The prolonged closure of the 50-year-old Fresh Creek Bridge, a critical transportation link connecting Andros Town and Coakley Town in Central Andros, has triggered widespread economic hardship for local residents and businesses, with one entrepreneur forced to shut down her operation entirely and community leaders growing increasingly frustrated with the government’s delayed, half-measure response.
Hanna Mott, a Central Andros small business owner who has operated Diamond Wheels on Wheels, a roadside food vending service, out of Davis Creek for two years, told The Tribune she was forced to close her business last month when the bridge’s ban on vehicle traffic cut off her access to the majority of her customer base. Since the closure, Mott has pivoted to selling snacks and soft drinks from her home while searching for informal work in the community, spending most days waiting for any opportunity to earn income.
“I just sit and pray that somebody calls me that they need something,” Mott said. “I put everything on hold because of the bridge – people can’t come over with their cars. You can hardly go shopping or anything like that; it just doesn’t make sense.” She estimates that local businesses across the affected area have lost at least 50% of their usual revenue, as the bridge closure makes it prohibitively difficult for customers to travel across the creek to patronize local shops and service providers. “A lot of people over here lost a lot,” she added.
The disruption extends beyond economic losses, upending daily life for hundreds of residents. Mott described seeing local students walk halfway across the unstable bridge to meet rides on the other side, with some children missing their school’s annual fun day entirely because they could not cross the creek. With vehicles barred from the structure, the only option for most travelers is to park at one end of the bridge, walk across the half-closed span, and arrange for a new ride on the opposite side. Compounding this crisis, there is no consistent alternative ferry service connecting the northern and southern sides of Central Andros: one temporary ferry operated for roughly a month before ceasing service, and a second that launched earlier this week stopped running after just one day. Davis Creek residents have also faced cascading infrastructure issues in recent months, including rolling power outages, spotty cellular and telephone service, and limited access to public transit.
Mott has joined growing calls for elected officials to commit to a full, permanent reconstruction of the bridge rather than a quick, low-cost patch job. She specifically targeted Central, Mangrove Cay and South Andros MP Leon Lundy, urging him to prioritize a permanent fix rather than a temporary repair. Her frustration was echoed during a protest gathering outside the Office of the Prime Minister by Progressive Liberal Party supporter Edison McKenzie, who accused Lundy of pursuing a “band-aid” solution that ignores longstanding safety concerns. “The people in Central Andros are fed up, and we will not accept no patching up on no bridge anymore,” McKenzie told reporters. He added that Lundy had repeatedly promised residents repairs were imminent, and noted multiple people have already suffered serious injuries due to the bridge’s deteriorating condition, recalling one incident where a man’s foot fell through a rotted section of the deck, requiring roughly 30 stitches.
In response to public outcry, Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting told reporters that a key structural component required for repairs has arrived in the country, and that the contracted construction team will begin work as soon as weather conditions permit.
The Fresh Creek Bridge was first condemned in August, after routine engineering inspections found that a primary structural support had sunk, shifting the entire structure’s weight onto the remaining supports and causing three deck sections to drop by roughly nine inches. Initially, the government planned to build a temporary crossing to maintain vehicle access while a permanent replacement bridge was designed and approved. However, the administration scrapped that plan after contractors projected a temporary bridge would cost more than $10 million, a price tag Sweeting said “wasn’t feasible to the ministry” at the time.
By September, the government announced a revised plan: it would allocate roughly $400,000 to repair the existing bridge as an interim measure, with work scheduled to start October 1 and take four to six weeks to complete. The repaired structure is meant to remain in use while the government puts out a tender for a full permanent replacement.
Safety concerns about the aging crossing are not a new development. The bridge was first closed in 2020 after a collision with a passing mailboat damaged its structure, and by 2023, local officials had already acknowledged the bridge was in severe disrepair, as residents repeatedly raised red flags about its unsafe design and deteriorating condition.