Major fault line undermines road
Published:Saturday | March 5, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
MARLBOROUGH, St Mary:
Dr Morais Guy, member of parliament (MP) for Central St Mary, says given the scope of the remedial work required on the Marlborough main road, "there won't be any support for that road under the Constituency Development Fund".
The road, which broke away more than a year now, is not likely to be fixed anytime soon, according to Dr Guy. He said that while technocrats had advised of the need for gabion baskets running all the way from the river up to the road surface, much consideration would have to be given to the nature of the repairs required.
"I don't even think that is going to help because the people from the Geological Survey Department were asked to look at it, and we were told that it is part of the same fault that was responsible for the Jehovah's Witnesses church building further up the road opening in two," said Guy.
This, however, is not the only section of the road which is being affected by land slippage as less than half a mile further, the underside of the roadway in the vicinity of Duck River is also being eroded. Upon the return journey in the vicinity of Beaumont Spring, The Gleaner vehicle encountered a motorist travelling in the opposite direction who was kind to enough to reverse to a section of the road that was wide enough to allow it to pass.
No quick fix
Dr Guy explained that this narrowing of the roadway, which occurred during Tropical Storm Nicole, had made it unsafe, but unfortunately, there is no quick fix.
Heading into the community in the vicinity of the playing field, one is forced to bring the vehicle to a halt before proceeding slowly, with the nearby Simon Gully section also being eroded.
The section of the roadway immediately past the Bongo Town Road as one heads to Zion Hill was so bad that taxi operators took it into their own hands recently to patch sections using marl, but further on, the road is close to impassable, according to residents. When we enquired about going to see for ourselves, they advised against this, warning that our vehicle would have been at serious risk. However, the MP disagreed with this assessment.
"That is not necessarily true, you can drive there. I wouldn't say it is treacherous, but it is dangerous on one of the steep inclines of that particular road," was how he gauged the situation.
A drive-through of the area showed that in the event of heavy rainfall, residents of Marlborough could be at serious risk of being trapped in their community, with all roads leading in in danger of either collapsing or otherwise being rendered impassable. For motorists using the roadway during rainfall, especially at night, the danger is increased tenfold, and the memory of a house that was located near the ford at Duck River being washed away during recent rains is still fresh in everyone's minds.