One lane cleared but Lady Young remains closed

ONE lane was cleared of tonnes of rubble following a landslide on Wednesday, but the Lady Young Road remained closed yesterday and last night as there is a fear the hillside may be unstable and further landslides could take place.

This was revealed by senior engineering officials who were on site yesterday while heavy machinery and workmen from the Ministry of Works and Transport spent the day removing rubble which on Wednesday completely blocked a section of the road near the lookout.

Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein confirmed that one lane of traffic along the Lady Young Road has been cleared by officials from the Port of Spain and San Juan Regional corporations yesterday but engineers were not satisfied that the the hillside was stable enough to allow for a resumption of the flow of traffic.

He said the experts were saying that loose earth, rocks and vegetation meant that there is the possibility of further landslides. The road’s closure meant an entire day of long lines of traffic on the highway leading into Port of Spain as a major route to and from the city was blocked.

“The workers managed to clear the sediment from Wednesday night’s landslide but there was another slip at around 4 am today and the regional corporations have been working since. The San Juan corporation has assisted in washing the road. Myself along with other officials from the Ministry of Local Government visited and we are satisfied with the pace of work,” Hosein said.

A release issued by the Ministry of Works and Transport yesterday confirmed Hosein’s statements but added that Lady Young will remain closed until this morning. Contacted for an update last evening, District Engineer Francis Jaggernath said that both lanes remained covered in rubble and were still impassable to motorists.

He estimated that work should be completed along the Lady Young Road by as early as five o’clock this morning and added that communities did not suffer any major loss of electricity during the landslide as most power lines were still intact.