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HomeNewsArchivesRock, Mudslides Make Headaches for Public Works

Rock, Mudslides Make Headaches for Public Works

Public Works crews can’t remove every last bit of the rockslides and mudslides that litter St. John roads because it will further destabilize the hillsides, Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls said Saturday.

“The hillsides are still coming down. The ground is so saturated,” Smalls said in a phone call he initiated.

Some rain is expected Monday, which Smalls said won’t help matters any. He said this week’s rain fell on soil already saturated from Hurricane Earl’s passage on Aug. 30.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of rainfall in a short time. Rain is my worst enemy,” he said.

As for Monday’s rain, meteorologist Ernesto Morales at the National Weather Service in San Juan said that a tropical wave moving through the area will increase shower activity.

“But we’re not expecting significant rainfall,” he said.

Sharon Coldren, president of the Coral Bay Community Council, said that Earl’s winds blew from the west, which ripped trees and vegetation from the westerly facing hillsides. This week’s rains came from the same direction, falling on hillsides with less vegetation than normal. She said this helped create mudslide conditions.

Coral Bay and nearby Bordeaux areas are the worst area Smalls saw on a tour of St. John. He said that on Bordeaux Road, a slide 150 to 200 feet has totally closed the road.

Coldren pointed out that the Upper Carolina neighborhood adjacent to Centerline Road was particularly hard hit.

“We have four places where the roads are completely undercut,” she said.

Some residents have such significant damage in their yards or driveways that they can’t live in their houses, Coldren said.

Some of the landslides that began on Upper Carolina’s hillsides went all the way down to Centerline Road.

“There is gravel, boulders and whole trees,” she said.

Additionally, Coldren said she knows of four landslides that start on the downhill side of Centerline Road. She said that while they’re not as visible as the ones that started on the uphill side of the road, they’ve caused problems.

Drier weather would help, but Smalls said some parts of the roads need to be totally reengineered to solve the problem.

“We’ll have to do shoring up,” Smalls said.

He said that residents shouldn’t expect a quick fix for the mudslide problem.

According to Smalls, the government has “reached out” to the Federal Highway Administration for funding to solve the problems.

“We’ve provided an initial assessment,” he said.

When more mudslides occur, Smalls said that Public Works crews will clear them as much as possible so emergency vehicles and residents in the area can get through.

“But we want motorists to be careful,” he said.

A huge rockslide on a neighborhood road that joins Centerline Road near Reef Bay may provide materials for stabilizing other hillsides, Smalls said.

For the long term, Smalls called on people who plan to build on their property to construct retaining walls to keep the hillsides from sliding. And when they cut down bush on their property so they can build, he urged them to quickly revegetate to keep the soil on the property.

“It’s going to take community effort and commitment,” he said.

He said that the huge amount of construction in the Coral Bay area has changed the way water flows downhill, which in turn caused problems on Centerline Road. Centerline Road is the main artery from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay.

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