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A landslide is currently threatening a section of Main South Road in the village of Chatham.
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Point Fortin MP Kennedy Richards Jr has assured his constituents that stabilization work on a massive landslide along Main South Road in the village of Chatham will resume on Monday.
If there is no rain.
Some residents have complained that the landslides on both sides of the road are getting worse. It is unsafe, they say, for any car to pass in the remaining narrow lane of the road. They fear that “any time now,” they will secede from the rest of Trinidad and Tobago.
Richards said: “It could happen, but nobody knows if or when it might happen. The work is being done. I know they are scared, I am scared too. Trying to improve the road, we must not lose a soul. While I’m scared, I have to trust the engineers to do their job. Kennedy is the cure, but that doesn’t mean things will be easy.
“The government is spending over $10 million on this site. This is to ensure that the southwestern peninsula is not cut off from the rest of the country. The work must be done properly. People are worried and I’m just as worried.”
The deputy recalled that recently a contractor had started stabilization work on one side of the road and then stopped. This is because soil test results showed that the other side of the road also needed work. This caused a change in the original goal of the project.
He said the design change to fix both sides, and bad weather caused a delay in resuming work.
Richards said he was staying on top of the project and working to fix the issues.
The contractor and the Ministry of Works and Transport have been working with WASA on the updated design.
A landslide is currently threatening a section of Main South Road in the village of Chatham. –
Richards said, “Once this slide is fixed, there are 19 more left from there straight to Icacos. I checked them myself. I spoke to (Labour and Transport Minister Rohan) Sinanan, who is willing to help. But he is dealing with 450 slips across the country. Every time you fix one, you get two more. This is the challenge we have in the country.
“So while he (Sinanani) is working to rectify the situation, other parts are being damaged. The government has supported wherever it could. If we had more money, we would have done more.”
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Richards said he was also trying to identify alternative routes such as an old Ministry of Works road connecting Buenos Ayers, Erin, to Chatham Road South. But that road also has a landslide.
A statement from the Ministry’s PURE Unit said construction work on the southern slide would resume on August 2. But there was further ground movement due to bad weather in recent weeks.
The statement added that work on the site was set to resume on Monday and is expected to be completed by the end of November.
One resident, Rikki Undheim, said the road is the only access road to other parts of Cedro.
“The villagers expect the entire southwest to be isolated from the country. This is the worst I have ever seen this slide. It was already bad, but after the contractor cleared the bamboo trees that supported the road, it got worse,” Undheim said.
“God save us someone on the road when the road recedes. We are frustrated. There are a lot of bad roads in Cedros and other parts of the TT. But ours are insecure and lives are at risk.”
