Plans to address Old Road Bay underway

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOLLOWING the publication of an article headlined “Old Road Bay - an ultimate traffic hazard” dated September 7, and after weeks of futile attempts, SKNVibes was finally able to contact the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works, Oaklyn Peets, who gave an insight of the plans to address the Old Road Bay hazard.

On Tuesday (Sep.23), Peets told SKNVibes that there are many contemplated ideas for the area, but added that they require proper engineering planning and a great deal of financing.

“We thought about doing some revetment similar to that done at New Guinea. 

There is also the idea of doing some contouring and excavation of the hillside and taking the fill to reclaim some of the land and even put some dikes on the side of the sea in order to protect to road. We are also contemplating on diverting a road to go above the hillside, in the Franklands area and go over to enter Old Road.

“There are two major forces that we have to work with here: the erosion of [the land by the] waves and the cliff erosion. So, we really have to look at engineering possibility. We had put a small revetment on the sea side sometime earlier as an interim measure to reduce any unforeseen accident.”

Peets said street signs, which most persons have been talking about, are trivial as they neither prevent intrusion by sea nor do they stop rock falls, and added that they are “mere features that can be implemented by police at any [given] time”. 

He stressed that the long term prevention is what the Ministry is “concerned and presently occupied with”.

“The plans may sound simple, but marine engineering is not cheap neither is it simple, so we have to ensure that whatever is done has a long-lasting result. If it were a different area, measures would have already been put in place, but we have to consider proper engineering for these projects.

~~Adz:Left~~“We have already had consultations with ADE out of Jamaica and TCL from Trinidad, which are both approved by the Caribbean Development Bank. We really do hope that these plans get into the 2009 National Budget.”

The Permanent Secretary indicated that he would contact the Traffic Department to recommend that more traffic signs need to be placed across Old Road Bay to accompany the lone hazard sign, but stated that the more comprehensive plans would be undertaken at a later date.