Emergency repairs considered for undermined road

The government is moving to expedite repairs to a section of the roadway in Cane Garden Bay that is being undermined apparently by groundswells.

Representative of the Second Electoral District including Cane Garden Bay, Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull, said the government will use a contractor that already was selected to undertake works in the area.

That is to circumvent the usual tender process, in light of what is considered the urgency of the situation.

“In order to ensure that we do not lose the entire road, we will work with the contractor who won the bid for the EU/OECS North Shore Integrated Coastal and Watershed Stabilization Project with urgency to begin the revetment works,” Turnbull said.

He added that the site already has been visited by works minister Mark Vanterpool, Director of the Public Works Department Jeffrey Skelton and his deputy, as well as the deputy financial secretary, and the deputy secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour.

As a safety measure, cones have bee placed along the affected roadway.

“Over the past week, there has been tremendous groundswells on the north side of the island. I asked the team from the Public Works Department to place a few cones along the roadside in Cane Garden Bay where the road started to be undermined,” Turnbull explained.

He, in a Facebook post, further stated that the Public Works team had to return to the site to ‘place several more cones for motorists and pedestrians to keep clear of the areas’.