NHT fast-tracks plan to move Ruthven Towers entrance after flooding
Published:Tuesday | November 15, 2022 | 12:09 AM
The National Housing Trust (NHT) has blamed Sunday’s flooding of the basement garage at its Ruthven Towers development in St Andrew on an inadequate public drainage network as it moves to shore up its defences to keep stormwater out of the complex.
In a statement to The Gleaner last evening, the agency said that it had started immediate work on a design to restrict access to the property on the corner leading to Trafalgar Road and move the main entrance to opposite the Jamaica Employers’ Federation’s offices.
The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) told The Gleaner that it received a call sometime after 2 p.m. about the flooding at the complex during a brief period of rainfall in the Corporate Area.
While there were no reports of injuries, several vehicles were partially submerged in the deluge.
Yesterday, the Ruthven Towers Executive Committee met to assess the situation, which one official admitted was humiliating.
“The owners are livid. It is embarrassing to all of us,” the NHT official, who was not authorised to speak on the matter, told The Gleaner.
The NHT said that while convenient, the entrance on the corner “was always slated to be secondary until the main access to the development across from Winchester Road is constructed as a part of Phase 2”. That phase is yet to get off the ground, but the NHT has advertised for developers to work on it.
The agency said it has also made arrangements for the owners of the affected vehicles to move around as it continues carrying out assessments, following which further redress will be determined.
Last month, the agency mounted sandbags at the entrance of the property “out of an abundance of caution” against flooding amid continual rainfall from Hurricane Ian.
At the time, the NHT’s Corporate and Public Affairs Manager Dwayne Berbick said the eight-storey building was not a flood risk and that there had been no reports of flooding at the development since its completion.
He also said the NHT had engaged the services of engineering consultants on the project in keeping with drainage and other design elements of the project. And before construction, approvals were obtained, including from the National Works Agency.
“Ruthven Towers is protected from flooding by four retention pits and two dry wells,” the agency said on Monday, adding that the systems are sunk in materials which allow for good filtration in the event of excess water.
“In addition, to the aforementioned, the entrance driveway ... was humped so as to prevent sheet flow of stormwater coming from Trafalgar Road on to Ruthven Road entering the property. Together, these measures were deemed adequate to withstand normal stormwater,” it added.
Sunday’s incident is the latest in a string of issues affecting the development, some of which resulted in the JFB initially refusing to give clearance for persons approved for mortgages to start living in the units, which ranged in price from $28 million to $38 million.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness handed over keys for the controversial development in August.
Within weeks, several homeowners reported leaks, which Berbick said were linked to a ruptured hot water pipe coupling in an apartment.
On Monday, the NHT insisted that Ruthven Towers is a valuable investment, adding that it and the National Works Agency have generally agreed on the terms of reference to undertake a holistic look at the drainage situation in the area.