Heavy rainfalls and the misuse of gabion installations are being blamed for the extensive damage to the temporary road at Bawden’s Bridge in St. Andrew.
This revelation has come from Philip Tudor, Deputy Chief Technical Officer in the Operations Section of the Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources, and Project Manager for the Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project. He and other ministry officials toured the Bawden’s Bridge on Tuesday to finalise plans for a temporary fix to the main artery into the rural community.
Tudor told media personnel, “We came to see how far the road had deteriorated and to see if there is anything temporary that we can do because we anticipate that if more hard rainfall comes, a wider section of the road might be subjected to land slippage.
“We are here with the Chinese, and we are putting our heads together to see what can be done… a short-term solution that would stop further movement of the road,” he said.
He explained that gabions were initially placed on the bridge to stabilise the roadway. The weight had the negative effect of destabilising the soil.
The upcoming multi-million dollar Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project which is funded by the EXIM Bank of China will see over 50 roads being repaired in the area including Bawden’s Bridge, where the gabion basket installations are to be replaced by a sheet pile method which would see large metal sheets being driven into the earth.
“The project was supposed to be a three-year project, so we want to bring it forward now due to the fact that more slippage will occur and the folks above there may be landlocked.
“What has been done is they have put gabions along the road’s edge. That has weighed down the road edge and has caused slippage to occur at a much faster rate than would have been normal had they started at the bottom. They should have started at the bottom and come up towards the road edge.”
One concerned resident from the area however explained that many of the issues with the road came from the old pipes that litter the area and often cause problems when they burst and cause authorities to come and dig up areas.
She said, “Do what you have to do, but don’t leave the old pipe that’s been in the ground for donkey years, ’cause I am 70 something years old and that was put down before I was even born. Do the road properly… if you are going to spend money on a road, spend money one time,” she said.
(SB)
