Works C.E.O. says many options available for bridges
No amount of warning could have prevented the infrastructural damage that broke up the highways, and washed out the bridges at Kendal and Mullins River. But for many people the loss of the Kendal Bridge was surprising as the span was built two decades ago to withstand a hundred year flood. Today Acting Chief Meteorologist Ramon Frutos put forward his theory as to why the bridge went down, while Ministry of Works CEO Cadet Henderson detailed how they plan to remedy the situation.
Ramon Frutos, Acting Chief Meteorologist
“What happened at Kendal is that the bridge came under water—I just want to complete my discussion here—it came under water ad what happened in the flooding situation in the Sittee river, we had big logs coming down too and those logs got stuck on the bridge. So what happened is that that bridge began to form like a dam and the water began to pile up behind that bridge so that when it gave way that wave of water went down also and that was part of the flash flood event also on the Sittee River.”
Cadet Henderson, C.E.O., Ministry of Works
“We are presently awaiting recede of the flooding. Following immediately thereafter, we’ve located a low embankment crossing in the proximity for the construction of a partial causeway. This should include a short bridge span. Hardware required for this in terms of beams and the like, we already have in stock. In the medium term we have two possible options. We will either construct a temporary bridge as at an appropriate location neat the original alignment or launch or erect an emergency bridge system with likely international assistance that would provide a reusable bridge. Usually after a major flood, the whole profile of the river changes, a lot of sediment deposits and embankment changes with meanders. But we believe that within a week or two we can execute a combination of a causeway with an insert of a conduit of some sort, whether it be of large culverts or spans of bridges—we have five options which we’ve looked at. We believe within two weeks and possible if we can within a week, we could have large categories of vehicles transiting this area. In terms of the Mullins River Bridge, again this was a two span bridge, that bridge had a center pier that was overwhelmed. It a piled structure, unlike the Kendal Bridge. That structure is still under water. Our short term proposal, again, is to await the recede of flooding, to upgrade the adjacent downstream low embankment ford crossing so that it can be used for all categories of vehicles, to install a short bridge span as necessary on the ford. Our medium term action there is not necessary since this area has less traffic and as it is the ford that exists requires very little to be upgraded for use by other categories of vehicle. And finally, our long term proposal here would be similarly either grant or loan funding.”
According to Henderson, he and Minister of Works, Anthony “Boots” Martinez have met with the U.S. Ambassador, and will be meeting with members of the Caribbean Development Bank tomorrow. The CDB has expressed a willingness to make an emergency grant of five hundred thousand U.S. dollars for infrastructural repairs and is open to provide loan funding to replace both bridges.
