ENVIRONMENTAL engineer Dr David Smith has proposed the rebuilding of the sand dunes along the Palisadoes spit, replanting vegetation to consolidate the dunes, and repairing the groins, as a more affordable method of addressing the problems of the erosion and rehabilitating the narrow strip of road that leads to the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

Smith, managing director of Smith Warner International, a Caribbean firm specialising in coastal engineering, was speaking at a luncheon meeting this week of the Rotary Club of Kingston, at the Hilton Hotel.

He told Rotarians that it was better to do something about the Palisadoes strip, even on a short-term basis, since hurricanes still posed a considerable threat to the island.

“.One of the things that I am suggesting could be considered is a two-phase programme. The first phase would be rebuilding the dunes so we could either get some of the sand that was washed up in the harbour to rebuild the dunes or bring in sand from adjacent rivers and rebuild the dune structure in that area,” he said.

“It would have to go hand-in-hand with replanting vegetation that would grow on these dunes. [They] would expand their root structure and would bind and basically help to consolidate the sand,” he added.

The environmental engineer said, too, that because the sand would still be vulnerable to hurricanes and storm surges, repairing the groin system along the coast, which would constitute phase two of the programme, would prove an effective step.

Said Smith: “Since 2004 there has been a lot of debate about what should be done. We’ve heard some camps expressing the view that the whole stretch of shoreline should be armoured with large boulders or concrete armour units… Another school of thought is that the road could be raised by one or two inches to take it out of the immediate threat area of the sea…and there is another which says both options should be combined.

“The problem with each of these solutions is that they are expensive to implement and it’s possible that the estimated cost of these works is perhaps one of the reasons nothing has been done,” he said.

The proposal to rebuild the sand dunes is very basic to the area of sea defence, suggested Smith. “The dunes are like an emergency savings account. [They’ve] got sand in them and when these storm waves come in, they force the dunes to release sand which in fact goes to the beach and acts as a buffer, but over time that sand is taken away in a storm. Once all the sand dunes have gone, the savings account has gone, so that’s the situation [in which we have found ourselves],” he said.

In the meantime, the amount of money being spent on upgrading work at the Norman Manley International Airport was cause for concern for Smith. He told Rotarians that having a “safeguarded link from the mainland to the airport and [to the historical heritage site of Port Royal] ought to be of paramount importance”.