MAY PEN, Clarendon – The National Works Agency (NWA) on Monday closed the eight kilometres of roadway between Lionel Town and Mitchell Town in Southern Clarendon after a culvert collapsed in the vicinity of DaCosta, significantly undermining the corridor. Traffic was being routed through Salt River.

The collapse, which took place last Friday, is just one of the challenges residents continue to face after Tropical Storm Ida.

With flood waters mostly receded, work is now underway to assess the extent of damage to the parish.

Communications manager at the NWA Stephen Shaw says the agency is working to clear roads that have been significantly impacted by flooding and landslides resulting from the storm. There are roads in the north that were still impassable because of landslides, he said.

“We have areas in the south that were impacted by flooding, while in the north, the areas were impacted by a combination of landslides and flooding. We have done significant work already in Peckham, Frankfield but we still have some blockage to remove,” he said on Monday. “The road from Mocho to Frankfield has multiple issues and we are still cleaning and clearing but the road is still impassable. There are at least eight massive landslides along this area and we have to be getting additional equipment to assist us in treating with some of the areas in the north where huge boulders have come down onto the roadways.”

Shaw said partial breakaways have occurred on some corridors and so the team from the NWA has been out checking on those structures because they might have been compromised. “We want to satisfy ourselves that these areas are safe for use, but right now we want to get people moving from one area to the next and so the removal of the impediments are our chief concern. We have been getting many requests from many residents and the leadership in the parish for drain cleaning and that is something that we do recognise will have to be done. But we will have to put together our reports and submit to the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and await directives from the ministry,” he explained.

Shaw added that de-silting activities have been taking place along the main corridor from May Pen to Whitney Turn, where significant flooding had occurred. On the southern side of the parish, areas such as Longwood, Alley, Mitchell Town and Lionel Town were all impacted by flood waters. “We will have to await the funding coming our way to treat with additional drain cleaning activities. We have also seen significant scouring of most of our roads and that too will require significant funding for us to treat those,” Shaw said.