The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A NEW elevated causeway with culverts will be constructed at Fishing Hole Road, which is low-lying and prone to severe flooding from Hawksbill Creek during major storms. Grand Bahama Minister Dr Michael Darville indicated that all necessary groundwork has been laid and they are waiting for engineer drawings to be completed.

Although he could not give an exact date when they would start and break ground on the project, Dr Darville said that he was excited about it and would keep residents up to date on progress.

Fishing Hole Road is 1.17 kilometers long but the section of the road that spans Hawksbill Creek is 18 feet.

Dr Darville said: “We are convinced it must be elevated and culverts underneath where we have surge flow back into the creek. We have a figure on the books, but we have to be very careful until we have the complete design,” he explained when asked about the cost for new causeway.

In a 1996 report prepared by the engineering and consulting firm of Dames and Moore, three alternatives were recommended based on a hydrodynamic model to the flooding in Hawksbill Creek caused by the 1995 category one Hurricane Erin.

The three alternatives considered were the addition of four pre-cast concrete box culverts which represents 25 per cent of the natural channel flow (ie the flow which would obtain if the causeway did not exist); the addition of eight box culverts representing 40 per cent of the natural channel flow; and culverts with a total width of 105 feet which represents 51 per cent of the natural channel flow.

The first two alternatives were not recommended. Dames and Moore recommended the installation of culvert sections with a minimum opening of 100 feet, which would prevent significant overtopping of the causeway, except for a 20-foot storm surge.

The report was presented in Parliament on October 25, 2006 by then PLP Minister of Works and Utilities Bradley Roberts.

Dr Darville said that government has been addressing the flooding problem at Fishing Hole Road for many years. He noted that when it happens residents of West Grand Bahama are cut off from Freeport and are not able to have access to essential services.

“The government has been addressing this problem for many years and I am pleased to report that with the work we have done at Ministry for Grand Bahama, as well as the relevant engineers and major companies here on Grand Bahama have found a solution to the Fishing Hole Road, which would be a causeway.”

Dr Darville said the entire industrial sector, including the Harbour Company, Bahama Rock, and all industrial companies west of Fishing Hole Road, came together and found a workable solution for a new Fishing Hole causeway.

“We do not want to start construction in the midst of hurricane season and so we will have to wait. But I am convinced ... that we would like to have the construction of this new causeway going on simultaneously with the bridge in East Grand Bahama,” he said.