North-South Highway Landslide Could Happen Again

President of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE), Gary Walters, said yesterday that it is likely that the North-South link of Highway 2000 could see future

landslides.

A section of the road was closed yesterday after a section of the hillside made its way on to the highway.

"It is unfortunate, but the slope stability was always known," Walters said.

According to director of public relations and communication in the Transport Ministry, Vando Palmer, rains over the last few days caused the soil to become over saturated resulting in land slippage. This, however, does not sit well with the senior engineer.

"I can't find it acceptable knowing that the rains that we had - it is not uncommon for us to have periods of heavy rains - which ought to have been taken into consideration by doing the appropriate soil stabilisation," Walters added.

China Habour Engineering Company (CHEC), developers of the highway, declined to comment on the matter yesterday.