PRESS RELEASE - February 03 , 2005
Pre-cast Concrete Armouring Necessary for
Palisadoes Protection...
...NEPA Expert
Explores Hurricane Protection Options for the Tambolo
"The most appropriate form of shoreline protection
for the delicate sections of the Palisadoes is a carefully designed
revetment, consisting of interlocking pre-cast concrete armour units" says
Cowell Lyn, Consultant Engineer. Mr. Lyn is the Coordinator of the
Kingston Harbour Institutional Strengthening Project, at the National
Environment and Planning Agency, (NEPA).
He said that although in the past there have been
suggestions that seawalls be built, given the relatively weak Palisadoes
soil conditions, it was his opinion that well constructed revetments or
shoreline protective coverings, made from pre-cast interlocking concrete
armour units, would be more appropriate.
Mr. Lyn indicated that it should be possible to use
this form of construction to give protection for the Palisadoes shoreline
against the seventy-five or one hundred year return of hurricanes. Mr. Lyn
was speaking at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus'
Research Day, on Friday, January 28.
Additionally, Mr. Lyn urged that suitable materials
such as riverbed sand and shingle should be trucked to the Palisadoes to
build back the beach berm or banks used to keep out flood waters, and the
dunes on the badly eroded sections of the Caribbean shoreline. He noted
that this was part of the naturally occurring formation of the Palisadoes.
Mr. Lyn indicated that after heavy rainfall in the
mountains to the northeast of Kingston, discharge sediment loads along the
St Thomas coastline. These drift towards the Palisadoes and fuse together
over time to form the tombolo. Mr. Lyn said that the tombolo, the strip of
land linking Kingston to the airport and Port Royal, was breached three
times in the past, due to hurricanes, in 1674, 1722 and 1744.
Mr. Lyn said that coastal areas such as Roselle,
Copacobana, Caribbean Terrace and the eastern section of the Palisadoes
are especially vulnerable to storm surges and wave action because of the
presence of the very deep Yallahs Basin immediately off the St Thomas
coastline. The Yallahs Basin which is in the Caribbean Sea is well over a
kilometer in depth. He stressed that it is very important that the
Palisadoes be properly maintained because it acts as a major breakwater
protecting the Harbour and the waterfront.
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