The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

As a Bahamian owner of a local construction company I have gained knowledge of practical information that I feel can better prepare the country for future Cat 5 storms.

Very importantly is the need for elevation. The current elevation or rough grade required for commercial developments is about 8.6ft above high tide.

Before any new construction begins in the low lying areas of Abaco and Freeport proper long term elevations must be achieved.

To achieve this we need an abundance of affordable structural fill.

The best way of creating this is with a drag line. A drag line is a large crane with a bucket on it.

Drag lines can create fill to a depth of 215ft where as most conventional excavators can only go about 20 ft deep. This allows for the greater production of fill with a minimum loss of land.

Most of South Florida was elevated with the use of drag lines. If you fly into Ft Lauderdale or Miami you can still see them digging on the border of civilisation and the everglades.

To create maximum cost efficiency the drag line would produce the fill as close to the area it is needed as possible to limit loading and trucking time.

If you look at most of the residential communities in south Florida you will notice a water feature, small lake or pond.

While this might look like only an attractive feature it was actually put there to create the fill for elevations and later landscaped with water features, etc, to blend into the community.

I propose the same idea for Abaco and Freeport. The lowest areas should be excavated without access to the ocean to create the fill to raise the communities.

The pond that will be created can be done with islands within it and on completion professionally landscaped with local trees to blend in.

This beautifies the community while eliminating low lying areas creating elevations for safer communities at a minimum cost.

We should aim to achieve elevations of a minimum of 9 ft with ideal being 12 to 14ft above high tide for roads and construction.

With a rough grade of 14ft, everyone’s house slab or floor would be about 17ft above high tide, this would be a very good thing.

All utilities need to be underground.

Protective dunes would be built with the same compacted fill in exposed low lying coastal areas, then planted with salt tolerant indigenous dune plants, shrubs and trees.

Dunes have proven to be within the top three choices of reliable and inexpensive ways of protecting communities from storm surges.

The cheap but well managed production of fill will soon become an issue of national importance as we are a low lying country facing unpredictable global conditions.

JW

Nassau,

December 4, 2019.