An aerial photo of the Palisadoes road the day after Hurricane Dean brushed Jamaica’s east and south coasts, causing extensive damage to homes, infrastructure and crops, and taking at least three lives.

Storm surges from the Category four hurricane brought sand, stones and debris onto the road, blocking it for more than half-a-day.

The road, which is the only access to the Norman Manley International Airport and Port Royal, was blocked for two days by huge mounds of sand – some as high as six feet – in September 2004 after Hurricane Ivan brushed Jamaica’s south coast.

After repeated calls on the Government to address the faults on the road, which is susceptible to flooding, Robert Pickersgill, the housing, water, transport and works minister, announced in Parliament in May this year that work had started on the road.

“. anyone travelling on that road will notice that the boulders are being dropped off. So work has started in earnest,” said Pickersgill as he opened the 2007/08 sectoral debate.

Pickersgill said Cabinet had approved a contract valued at $40 million for the rock rivetment work to be done under phase one of the Palisadoes Protection and Rehabilitation Project.

“This is an immediate step to address the problem of a road which is now substantially at or below sea level,” he told the House.

However, hours before Hurricane Dean’s arrival on August 19, an Observer news team travelling to the airport and Port Royal noticed that the boulders were stacked only at one section of the 14-kilometre-long road.