Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Massive erosion at Christianburg
– $21M revetment project ongoing
By Enid Joaquin
Massive erosion at Christianburg in Linden has necessitated a revetment project
The erosion at Christianburg, Linden.
costing some $21 million.
The project is presently being undertaken by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, according to Regional Chairman Renis Morian.
According to the Project Supervisor James Douglas, the works are expected to be completed within the next three months.
It reportedly started three weeks ago and employs ten persons, six of whom are Lindeners.
Douglas told the media that sometimes workers start the day as early 3a.m., because they have to work ‘with the tide’.
Pointing to the rip rap defence, Douglas said that the latter would be positioned behind the piles in order to consolidate the structure.
“These rocks are going behind those piles and they have a sand bed here wrapped in polyurethane fabric”. He added that the revetment consists of erecting a second set of piles outside of those that were originally planted, and then filling up the space in between with sand and other materials.
KATAPULLI CREEK
While the revetment works at Christianburg involve an area of approximately 100 metres,
Project Supervisor James Douglas speaking with media operatives.
along the riverbank, the area around the Katapulli creek, which the Katapulli Bridge spans, has seen significant erosion over the years, and is once again having more rehabilitative works carried out there.
Chairman Morian, who took media operatives on a tour of the site said that the genesis of the project was that under the previous administration, rehabilitative works to the bridge, saw the diverting of the creek by the contractors.
Morian noted that in so doing the homes of the people in the immediate vicinity were threatened.
“The creek still come back now to where it was, because it was not properly done.”
A project like this needs hydraulics – to move a creek that has been running for over a hundred years.”
DIVERTED
Almost a decade ago, massive works costing $14 million was done on the current Katapulli Bridge.
In a previous interview, IMC Chairman Orrin Gordon had questioned the wisdom of diverting the course of the creek, while breaking the road to erect the new bridge at its present location, which is only a few feet away from where the old bridge was located.
According to Gordon, diverting the Katabulli Creek from its natural course, through a man-made canal, would have posed major problems – primarily erosion.
Gordon had further pointed out that the original concrete revetments were removed from the former bridge – and a lot of the erosion that subsequently occurred was due to that. He had also expressed concern over launches and barges which docked at the bridge for repairs. He had also pointed out that the sustainability of the infrastructure was highly questionable, as the constant battering of water on both sides of the structure, was a recipe for disaster.
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