It’s not the usual landslip.
That’s Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan’s description of the North Coast Road, which has partially caved in, reducing traffic on that portion of the road to one lane.
“That slippage on the North Coast Road is not what we normally would have. Normally what you have the mountains coming down in certain areas. This was a slippage of the roadway which is not what would happen on that side,”
The ministry’s team returned to the site yesterday morning to make further assessments. The earth was still seen shifting and vehicular traffic remained reduced to one lane.
The minister admitted the one lane situation was not ideal.
He said: “Obviously there will be some inconvenience and this why we are looking at the option of a two-lane bailey bridge. So we expect that hopefully, that will be up by weekend and traffic will return to normalcy.”
He said the ministry’s team would continue to work underneath the bridge after it’s installation.
The minister said the North Coast Road and other hillside roads, like the Lady Young Road, continued to be monitored by engineers during the course of the rainy season
“We have been monitoring the Lady Young. That’s an ongoing maintenance programme, monitoring the Lady Young, removing trees. And we’re looking at the areas that might be threatened,” he said.
“We’re working with the ministry’s engineer along with some engineers from the University of the West Indies to ensure that we at least look at the vulnerable areas and put in some regular maintenance on them.”
According to residents, signs of the roadway decay began on Sunday and subsequent heavy rains made the situation worse.
Sinanan said such roadways would continue to be a challenge due to the age of the roadways and the terrain surrounding them.