Minister Addresses Palmetto Road Concerns
The Minister of Public Works Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said she wishes to express her “sincere words of compassion to those residents on Palmetto Road, Perimeter Lane and elsewhere on the island whose homes have been affected by flooding over recent weeks as a result of the weakening infrastructure.”
The Minister said: “I have personally been to several of the areas affected and seen the flooding first hand. I can’t begin to imagine how it feels for some families who have lost treasured family possessions due to water damage.
“I wish to assure the public that Works crews are doing all that they can to assist these families and to minimize future flooding issues in these areas.
“In fact staff members from the Ministry have gone above and beyond their responsibilities – with one employee even shuttling stranded Perimeter Lane residents to and from their homes in his own private vehicle this week,” added the Minister.
The Ministry said, “On Sunday night crews from the Ministry of Public Works did some site reconnaissance at Perimeter Lane/Palmetto Road to see if an opportunity exists for a second exit/entrance off Perimeter Lane.
“The Ministry hopes to have a solution soon regarding the creation of an alternative point of access. Works crews are looking to clear one ditch in particular in this area, once the water has abated, in order to improve the efficiency of drainage in this area.
“This week Works crews employed the use of sandbags to one home on Perimeter Lane to abate the flooding from that residence.
“In the very near future the Ministry is looking at creating boreholes on Palmetto Road to prevent this severity of flooding from occurring.
“This area is a low-lying area – on the same level as the marsh – which is one of the factors contributing to the flooding problem in this neighborhood.”
It is all fine and dandy to share your sympathies, however, government has known about the area on Palmetto Road for well over a year and never did anything about it until it was too late. They have had traffic lights up blocking off that side of the road knowing full well that something was going to happen and instead of doing something they just let it sit there. I am sorry for the families that were affected by the laziness of government.
If you rread my posts,that i dont write many.But i dont support party politics as i think bermuda is to small!BUT do you think this problem just arose as this govt camt into power??
Its been eroding for years,why didnt the previous govt do anything.You people are so quick to blame.
If you will recall, this began when your government was spending our money, the money that the OBA could have used to fix this deplorable mess your government left us with. Your government had roughly 2 years to do something about it but I will agree with you, the OBA dropped the ball, it should have been one of their top priorities to have this fixed. And I will go a step further, these folks should be compensated for their loss.
I agree 100% with all you’ve written James…
“The Ministry hopes to have a solution soon regarding the creation of an alternative point of access”
Ok whatever tell us when you’re fixing the road or did I miss the news report. If this was South Shore or an election year the road would have been fixed a long time ago.
But i thought when they had built that new apartments complex down there, the than minister Burch had promised to build a road across the dump to the Parsons road side to cut down on the traffic on perimiter Lane??Talk about broken promises
Weeks later she shows herself, not good enough !!
Be honest. Nothing she could do would be good enough for you.
wow.
I actually agree Mike.
And likewise, she could do no wrong in your eyes.
See, that’s the difference between us. What I said is true. What you said isn’t. I’ve been very critical of ALL our political parties.
I will agree with this. OBA reaction has to be quicker.
If it was in another segment of the community I think we would have heard from her sooner!!!!!!!!!!!!
meaning?
It’s Mazumbo so that means if it was a “white” hood, she would have been all over it… Mazumbo has a deck full of race cards!
Oh, we all know what he means… But don’t call him a racist. Ohhhhhhhhhhh no.
If a racist is a realist , than are all realist racist ?
If he was a realist, maybe you’d have a point.
He’s not. In any way. This has been shown many, many times.
Oh I forgot there is no Racism in Bermuda no more, my bad.
Nope. It’s alive and well…
The difference between us is that I’m not living in denial that BOTH sides can be racist.
But a valiant attempt at lying about my position.
Try harder. Try honesty…
Every generation has an opponent against those whom speak for the oppressed and against injustice
so I embrace your comments but reject your ideology.
My ideology of equality and working together to help us all get to a place where we can be equal, by using honesty and integrity and respect and truth?
Yeah. It’s pretty obvious you reject that ideology.
You know you don’t speak for “the oppressed”.
Who you speak for is VERY obvious.
She showed her face first thing in the morning this incident happened and was on the news that same day, don’t know youre talking about
You might be interested in knowing that I was on site by 7:00 on the same morning, as soon as I heard about the collapse, and I have been there several times since.
The department staff has been flat out working on a long standing problem and, with limited funds, we will continue until a satisfactory resolution has been put in place.
My concern for fellow residents goes beyond politics, and I truly regret that there are those who can only apportion blame on a political level. It is completely counter productive
this road has been like this for MANY years..it’s NOT just the present government amiss here,it’s also the defunct plp too.
But they were far to busy spending money on friends and family!
I am so concerned every time I go over the temporary bridge !!!!!!I can see this as a disaster waiting to happen.
BEEN A PROBLEM FOR A LONG TIME SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIXED UNDER THE PREVIOUS GOVT.
BOTH WRONG
The rain continues and the floods continue and the gov continues to just sit and think. I thought the Oba would have been better than the PLP but lawd I don’t know who’s better. Both tie in last, well the Oba have their heads above water.
Oh give me a break you OBA bashers!!! This problem has been known for a long time and that includes your plp’s time!!! Why don’t you put the blame were it it really lies??? That would be the CS head of the public works department!!! You make it very hard for anyone to have any compassion for you!!! How dare you blame the OBA for cheap political shots when you know very well were the blame really lies!!! You bunch are pathetic!!!!!
She’s from back-ah-town . Give them people relief not sweet talk .
Just because she’s from back of town don’t mean she has the best interest of them ,perfect example look who her father was and the party she supports!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lol,…. You use the name Mazumbo.
If you all were following his ideals,.. how is it that both his daughters shunned your political organizations with the first holding the reins of Premier(since were talking race, Bermuda’s first BLACK FEMALE premier) and the other still completing her political career ( and taking a road seldom traveled by the rest of her party and her opposition contemporaries!
When you mature enough to recognize qualities and ideals instead of becoming a political groupie, you will begin to understand, that bad, wicked and stupid people, come in all colours.
Change address to Rambling Lane, and make sure you flash whatever valuables you can get your hands on, then make a note of the colour of the guy(s) who rob and shoot you.
You’ll be asking yourself a series of “whys”.
Reading some of these bloggers they expect the Minister, shovel in hand, to be there doing the job all by herself. Even that would not be good enough for some of them. Like little children at Christmas they cannot be pleased.
This job goes way back before 12/17/12. Even then full blame cannot be heaped upon the PLP. Here is a perfect example of why road maintenance should be taken out of the hands of W&E. The people there cannot handle the work without being constantly watched from above. I stress that I include the W&E administration all the way down.
Government ministers should not have to babysit these people to get work done.
I agree with part of what you say however, isn’t it also part of the ministers job to make sure that the job is getting done? No she doesn’t have to do teh job her self however she is the MINISTER in charge of the project, so why has it taken over a year for action to be taken? the families in the area even in the home could have been seriously hurt. Thank goodness they weren’t otherwise this would be a completely different conversation.
No it is not the Ministers job to oversee projects within the Ministry. That is why we have very highly paid Directors of Departments. Again, here is a great example of why the CS needs a major shakeup. Nobody is accountable. Heads need to roll starting at the top.
I’d like to beat the PLP with this incompetence stick but the fact is, it has been going on long before 1998.
Take a few of those fellows up at the Westgate,(and Farm)Correctional Facilities to help rectify much of the problems being faced by not only the residence but the general public on a whole…
Here we do see many inmates in our jails sitting up because they have failed to pay a court fine/s or for other reasons, here they can work and earn x amount of dollars to put towards their child support in arrears or fines and in the long run save us all dollars.
Think before you speak….
How much prison expertise and qualifications do you see in Westgate that could execute this project to the engineering specifications and standards required to ensure that such is never repeated??
Several engineers over 44years couldn’t prevent this from happening…. and some uncertified prisoners will fix it?
Riiiiggghhhtt!
There have been traffic lights and single-line traffic in that area for AGES…but no work being done! Is it any surprise that the road finally gave way? Get with it, W & E!!!
One of the home owners from the area in question went to the media a year ago in March 2013 & said the wall had started to cave in a week prior. He also mentioned that he had talked to the minister at that time about the problem. Since then only a temporary band aid was applied to the situation, after reading this article I can see not much has changed. All that is offed here is more short term band aids instead of a long term solution. This is a wall supporting a public road that has regular heavy traffic plus is a key entry point into the capital & financial heart center of this land. What’s the hold up? Then again it took months & public outrage before the public road & wall that collapsed onto a school property was fixed (& that was a much smaller scale job then this one).
Bermudas low lying and marsh areas have been flooding since long before the island was inhabited. It has therefore been the problem of every government to solve. Unfortunately, none have managed to do so, presumably because up until lately, it has only been an occasional nuisance and not a danger to health. Hopefully the recent incidents will prompt more interest and action.
Wow a year or so late but thanks for your concern for my neighbourhood Minister
<<<<<>>>>>>
It should read Minister is fired by the Premier for sitting on Palmetto Road Concerns.
Stupid comment
When all that Snow melts in the spring on the East Coast of the USA you are going to see unbelievable flooding and loss of life.
That comment is bologna because the U.S. see a problem and then fix it right away – they know what is going to happen and they get prepared for it! There was NO preparation for this and now W & E are scrambling to fix it!!! think before you leave a comment!
Sorry Z, but what planet are you from?? You are absolutely wrong about the US, they have crumbling roads and bridges all over the US and it is a matter of time before a major disaster happens there!! I would not be surprised at all if Junk Yard Dog is correct!!! Just remember the US is not like Disney world in Orlando!!! You actually need to travel a bit and open your eyes while you are there!!!
Many years ago, on our first trip to Colorado, I saw a warning sign on I70 just west of Frisco. “BUMP” read the sign. “Been there a long time” I was told by our Coloradan hosts. “When will the road be fixed?” I asked. “Not before the sign wears out” the quick thinking host replied.
That sort of ‘do it later’ mentalilty is very much alive & well here in Bermuda. Wait till a little job becomes a big job then take forever to get it done.
I lived there for 5 years. So yea where i was they took care of their crap
I apologize, I am just a little frustrated at the comment that you left. I did live in the states for 5 years, my husband is American and we travel back and forth to the U.S. frequently both in summer and winter. When there are blizzards and such in the NE USA the put down salt in preparation for the upcoming storm. I am just trying to state that they are prepared for what is coming. You can’t compare the USA to Bermuda for two completely different situations. If we had snow it would be different. All I have been trying to say through out all my comments here is that government knew the area was weak so why did it take so long for them to do something. Essentially and unfortunately they are doing something a little to late.
I didn’t mean to frustrate you, but I as well am married to an American, I lived there for Ten years and travel there now every other month! I just didn’t want more people miss lead by your post, my point to you is simple, all governments do this stuff with their infrastructure. People on here blaming the OBA are only doing it for political cheap shots and sure as heck don’t need anymore fuel to keep their non-sensible fires burning!! The plp are just as much to blame, in fact even more too blame being they were in power for 14 yrs, if in fact the plp had not left the country so broke, I would be willing to bet the OBA would have made sure it was done immediately for political reasons!!!!
The UBP who commissioned built and opened Palmetto Road, holds the ultimate responsiblity for not properly engineering the project and shoring up the foundation/ bedrock, then reinforcing it to accommodate the future traffic that the MAJOR CONDUIT they opened would produce on an increasing scale.
They simply did whatever they can to avoid having to pay out (compulsary purchases, deep excavations and extraction of soft materials, purchase and supply of heavy aggregate and concrete as well as reinforcement of the external facing and drainage) and deferred it for a future government to be plagued with, figuring they would all be long dead when it becomes a problem.
Guess it didn’t work that way did it?
@ Former Public Works/ Works and Engineering Minister Quinton Edness…. Trevor Moniz ( who was in that same administration, and has recently held this same post in the current government)
I also wish to expose the fact that I personally wrote to both Trevor Moniz (then Minister of Public Works)and the Premier as well as raised it to the OBA warning that this could happen at anytime. All correspondence was brushed aside without so much as a single worded reply.
Ok I get that but the PLP may have put the traffic lights up there whatever but the OBA are now in charge and they told us they were a take action kind of government and would take care of things. They haven’t so they have dropped the ball BIG time. Bermuda MOM – they have the man power, however they are doing nothing about it. Every time I drive by a W & E truck where there is a “Project” they are sitting around doing nothing. I have even seen W & E purchase alcohol in the middle of the day. They are just lazy! They are also still getting paid for it.
There lies the problem as I said to you, the government workers are the problem, and that starts at the top of the CS right down to the bottom in the works Dept!! Did you read above what Min Pamplin said?? But I will also remind you that the previous plp government left us flat broke, but as the Min said she is on it, but as YOU said you see the workers buying alcohol while they should be working!! So again am I wrong when I said who we should be blaming????
No your not – but I am not either because if you really think about it – they are all to blame front the top of the totem pole all the way to the bottom!
The US have the man power and resources. We don’t have enough staff in W&E to fix the problems all at once
Sadly, we will always have flooding problems in this area and all around the Pembroke Marsh basin. To build houses in that area was, and is, ludicrous. Just think for a moment what an enormous catchment area it is and then think about where all the water can flow whenever we have a major downpour.
There is only one way out and that is along the canal, and water will never pass quickly enough along that canal no matter how well it is maintained because it simply does not have sufficient capacity, and will always be a nightmare during high tides. Someone will probably suggest pumping it out but that would require massive pumps at huge expense with very high maintenance costs, and even then it would be next to impossible to pump water out fast enough during the kind of downpours we have from time to time.
What we have is a large marshland area that is not, and never will be suitable for housing or building. This applies not only to the eastern end of the Pembroke Marsh but also to the areas around Masters Limited, BAA Field, and all the way down to Mills Creek.
Yes, the wall problem can be solved to some degree but like it or not we will never have a Government that will really solve the flooding problem because it will remain that way for all time. There are two guarantees here. No matter who is in Opposition they will promise to solve it, and no matter who is the Government of the day they will not be able to do so. THAT is guaranteed!