Present work should prevent further flooding on Palisadoes road, says minister

INGRID BROWN, Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, May 08, 2008

GOVERNMENT has given the assurance that work presently being done on the Palisadoes main road, the only access road to the Norman Manley International Airport, should prevent any further flooding.

The flood-prone road, which took a battering during the passage of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 and during Hurricane Dean last August, was again inundated when heavy flood water washed onto the road because of rising tides earlier this year.

However, Mike Henry, the transport minister, told the Observer recently that the current work on the Palisadoes will be enough to protect the strip from any weather condition.

"What we are doing now is to fill in the gap which was not done before to ensure that anything that happens between now and the first of June will protect the Palisadoes strip," he said.

Henry said a study done by the Cubans on how to address the situation of flooding was also being examined by a Canadian expert. A response, he said, should be forthcoming by the end of this week at which point the other phase of the project will be put out to tender.

Already funding for the project has been approved by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

"A Cuban firm has conducted a study on the Palisadoes road and based on that study we have applied to the Caribbean Development Bank for a loan of US$25 million to address the Palisadoes road situation," Henry said.

He said the CDB was the one having the study examined by the Canadian expert and that the study should show if there were any gaps to be filled or any extra funding that might be needed.

Henry said the study would also include other possibilities such as the building of the beach on the harbour side and creating a walkway.

Meanwhile, Joseph Hibbert, state minister in the transport ministry, said the work currently being done includes rock revetment.

"We had done some protection before which stood up during the past hurricane and so what we are doing now is to extend it to those other areas and we expect that even if the hurricane comes before the completion then it will stand up," said Hibbert.

He said while it might not necessarily protect everything there was expected to be a significant portion of the Palisadoes roadway withstanding all weather conditions.
He said the reason this protection was not put in place before now was because of a lack of funding.

Hibbert said previous studies had not taken into account the form of extensive hurricane problems and so that type of protection was only put in some sections of the roadway, however, that will extend to the entire length of the Palisadoes strip.

This current work, which is expected to be finished in another three weeks, is expected to flow into phase two of the project.

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