KINGSTON, Jamaica — Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Works Agency (NWA) EG Hunter says that under the Marcus Garvey Road Project, the expansion of the Shoemaker and Tivoli (Gardens) gullies in West Kingston have been concluded.

Hunter told yesterday’s meeting of the House of Representatives’ Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee that the agency has also increased the drains capacity to deal with additional flows which come into the area.

“The construction of the roadway is such that it is going to be elevated, and significant amounts of storm water drains are being built to the side of the roadway,” Hunter said.

“It is our projection that in the aftermath of the completion of the civil works, then incidences of flooding will, well I can’t say will be eliminated entirely, but would be reduced significantly,” he added.

But, he said that despite those improvements to the drainage, there were two issues which would always have significant impact on flooding in the area.

The first was climate change and its associated effects which will result in significantly greater intensity in rainfall, and greater volumes of water run-offs than before. But, the NWA could compensate for that in its engineering designs, and in terms of the return period for storms that is taken into consideration in doing the design.

The second is the existence of solid waste material in the environment.

“From any engineering point of view, we don’t design those structures to deal with tree trunks and that kind of stuff. We have pictorial evidence of that kind of material impacting the area,” Hunter explained.

He said that the long-term solution for flooding concerns has to do with the NWA, from an engineering point of view, prescribing a more robust infrastructure for the drainage facilities.

“But, coupled with that must be an improved effort to manage the solid waste problem. We think that if those two are undertaken and are undertaken simultaneously, the incidences should be behind us,” Hunter stated.

In its report to the committee on the project, the NWA said that approximately 65 per cent of the Marcus Garvey Drive project was completed. Retaining wall construction was reported at 90 per cent completion and sub-grade activity on the northern side of the carriageway was in progress. All activities are being executed on both the southern and northern sides of the carriageway, with the southern side approximately 90 per cent completed,

He said that despite the challenges, the pavement is on schedule to be completed this month, while the entire project is on schedule to be completed by March, 2017.

Balford Henry