Photos: Collapsed Wall On Palmetto Road
[Updated with photos] As of 7am this morning [Feb 14] there are traffic restrictions in place in the Palmetto Road Devonshire and Dutton Avenue, Pembroke areas due to downed utility poles and wires and a collapsed wall.
A police spokesperson said, “The motoring public is advised that due to downed utility poles and wires in the Palmetto Road Devonshire area, traffic diversions are in place.
“In addition, travel is not recommended along Dutton Avenue, Pembroke at this time. Motorists are asked to avoid these areas if possible until the situation can be rectified.”
Update 10.27am: A BELCO spokesperson said, “In the aftermath of the storm in the early hours of this morning, 12 customers are without power in the Palmetto Road area. Crews are onsite, working to restore power in a job that is expected to take the full day.
“Also, at approximately 10:45 PM last night, storm conditions caused approximately 30 customers in the Parsons Road area to lose power; restoration took about four hours with power restored at 2:32 AM.
“BELCO thanks customers for their patience during these weather-related events.”
Update 12.22pm: As of 12.00pm, power has been restored to six customers, with some wires having been cut away and isolated from downed poles, and a transformer re-energised.
Six customers remain without power, as work continues to re-route power to them, according to BELCO.
Update 3:59pm: BELCO said, “The new poles on Bishop Spenser Road have been installed. Power has been restored to the last six customers.”
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- Photos: Work Continues At Collapsed Wall Site | Bernews.com | February 16, 2014
Hopefully no one was injured! Now government needs to fix the entire stretch of wall! SAFETY FIRST
Not sure it’s government’s issue, but they do need to find a resolution. The owners need to take some responsibility. Do South Shore home owners get to complain to government when their beach/cliff is being eroded by weather.
All this situation has further done is create more congestion on Bermuda’s already congested roads. Now people people in the east will know what it feels like to drive in to work from the west.
Really ppl……….If you are older than 50rs that road was made by govt as an extension to link Marsh Folly and the new Palmetto Road. That was part of the railway tracks. The walls were put there by Government. Why is it the home owners responsibility. On the other hand, if you want to buy property on the seashore and it not public access, that is the owners problem to secure their home from sea erosion.
The roads been had lights for months now eastsiders are definitely used it. And there’s definitely Northshore and middle road that is still accessible. Keep calm you westender
Ummm: Eastenders already know because this strectch has been one way (traffic lights) for over a YEAR already. This is a main artery into town and is compoletely unacceptable. Government should have got off their behinds over a year ago – thank God nobody was killed.
When the people in this area vote to turn it into a oba.ubp strong hold the wall will be fixed. The oba is not concerned about your votes. If this was Fairylands the wall would have been fixed as soon as the oba.ubp took control.
Why should the taxpayer foot the bill to fix a wall on private land? If you own the land then it is your responsibility to ensure it is maintained and kept safe.
And the wall that fell last night was not the one that has required those stop lights all this time.
Take responsibility for once in your lives.
@Just shut up, that stretch of wall all along marsh folley road/ Palmetto Road was put up by the Government of the day when that road was put in place at least 40 years ago,so it should be a government concern as it also is a major traffic road, no different than the wall leading up to wellness hospital..About time W&E start making monthly visits around Bermuda and get these engineers off there back sides and out of there cozy offices..
As the poster said the lights that have been up all this time has nothing to do with the wall that collapsed. It was in relation to the unstable wall back further which resides on private property.
If it was fairylands the owner of the wall would fix it. The government doesn’t have any walls there….
idiot, the problem was highlighted during the PLP reign of terror
Action speaks louder than words. Lets see how long it takes to fix this . Work should start first thing Monday morning. No take that back ,action is needed NOW …PLP STRONG HOLD OR NOT .
Glad no one was hurt. For what its worth this was the third wall that came down in the last 24 hrs.
Always Government’s fault isn’t it. I guess if your roof blows off it will be their fault also. If you ahve a wall around your house it is not the Governments responsibility to fix it. Who owns that piece of property?
I did say “safety first”! School kids walk past here on a daily basis, and government should take the lead on this.
@enough
No one mentioned it is governments fault. It was stated that the Government needs to ensure the road is fixed because is obviously a very serious safety concern.
I’m pretty sure Government does not own the properties at Paget stoplights or Burnt House Hill were they are doing wall repairs to enhance the safety of the road. It is very common for governments to take on projects in the interest of public safety. This strecth of road should qualify for that.
If they have to bill someone afterwards, so be it, but the road and wall should be fixed to ensure the safety of the residents and its commuters.
That is a main road! The wall and sidewalk were not put there by owners.
This time Im afraid it IS W&E that must take the blame. If you look carefully it was not the road that gave way, it was the south side of the very large soak-away pit on the south side of the road. Strangely, there appears no sign of anything that structurally tied the south wall of the pit/tank to the north side. That being the case the pit probably filled completely up very quickly last evening and the south wall just failed. The wall retaining the actual roadway seems OK. Just guessing there might have been 2000 to 5000 gallons of water involved – pretty messy for the guys down the hill.
Gov has been letting bigger and bigger vehicles on the island (illegal dumpster trucks ring a bell? What about the larger trash trucks…now the smaller ones, buses even? Not to mention SUV’s). I think gov has played a part.
Oh yeah, what about the street drain that always clogs around that house? Maybe drain maintenance would’ve helped take the water where it was supposed to go. Maybe gov should’ve fixed the drainage around there. Noooo that’s on the homeowner surely.
There’s a public carriageway there burdening the bank, both government and the adjacent property owners should foot the bill. I don’t see why it should fall solely on the landowners as all of our traffic contributes to it.
That entire stretch of road needs to be reworked, the section near the entrance to the Marsh Folly is slowing falling in as well. That was shored up only maybe a decade ago iirc, and its sinking in again. Not to mention all the other areas along public roads that you see sinking and cracking in the pavement due to underlying earth giving way under the pressure of daily traffic.
The Permiter Lane issue needed to be addressed a loooong time ago and Government sat back, previous and present, and did nothing to address it. The wall is a roadside wall and therefore Government’s responsibility. Thankfully no-one was hurt and hopefully Government does now, finally, address the issue. It is not the residents’ responsibility- pretty soon that whole side of the road is gonna have one large sinkhole!
you shouldnt comment if you don’t know the facts,I grew up in that house and that is a govt built wall, the holding tank that holds the rain water from palmetto road broke causing the sidewalk and wall to collapse
How long was that wall unstable ? How long were the traffic lights up….I guess if it was a more affluent area……….
ank even dat bra…its a money thing. more affluent area don’t mean s***! only reason wall ank been fixed is because of money issues between government n de ppl. why should we pay for d wall…government wall.
Thats been d issue on why it hasnt been fixed….. no one is taking ownership of d wall.
Unfortunateky this was an unitended consequence of NOT fixing the retaining wall previously. The additional load around the area obviously just needed a trigger and that weather last night was it. Now the engineers are going to have to design for 100ft instead of the 25ft that was under consideration. I have to agree with those that say that the Government must step in for the safety of the residents and work out who is going to pay for it later.
@ Enough: this is a whole stretch of public sidewalk, government water drainage well and public retaining wall. Have you gone seen it? Maybe before you comment you should have gotten that piece of information!
When it comes to mother nature , you will never win..It was not raining just cats and dogs last night but also elephants..My question is how could the so called enginers design such a wall , with NO reinforcement rods, down to well beneath the hard rock there..short cuts will come back to bite you in the ass one day ..
The owner of the property should definitely be held responsible. As Government highlighted when the issues with the wall first came about, they are not responsible for someone else’s property. However, with all the time it has taken, they should have fixed the wall and billed the owners of the property for the repairs.
The whole of Marsh Folly Road is slowly falling back into the Marsh.
Have a look heading west just after the dump entrance and before the left hand turn toward the netball courts; cracking and sinking.
Throughout the island there are a number of roads (and adjoining walls/cliffs) that are sinking and will fall away… Hopefully when the roads are free of traffic.
The wall that fell before is a whole different wall in itself. This wall pictured above was bond to fall one day, because it’s been there for years…. I know this because it is my neighborhood. The entire sidewalk went along with it because water was going under the concrete strips and pressure was put on the wall. My neighbors houses are flooded with water and mud while the pond has overflown in the main road of the neighborhood and has left people and their children stuck in their houses because they’re unable to go anywhere. They’ve been climbing fences yard to yard to see what’s going on. While other neighbors help the flooded move their belongings.
I wish Government would let all residents who own land on a main road know who is resposible for fixing acts of God such as this. If I own a piece of land which borders a main road and it collapses and don’t have the money to fix the wall…what happens then? The public could be put into a huge inconvenience if the road is not accessible. Or does Govt. cherry pick which areas they want to fix?
I’m glad no one was injured. Looking at the photos it’s seems to be the drainage area and the wall built along with it that has caved in. This has been an area known to catch water and flood for years. Can the road be structurally repaired to handle the daily traffic?
Traffic lights have already been there a year and Gov has done nothing. Another year or so is now an absolute certainty. Same as the temporary bridge put in place seven years ago at the airport. I guess when it collapses under the weight of some huge truck and kills a few people, then Gov might actually do something – like reopen the old bridge. Who cares if it doesn’t open. Remember, that was the reason the old bridge was closed – not that it was falling down but that it wouldn’t open. Brainless Government does it again.
People – the lights aren’t there for this wall. This is further down, another property.
Wow! And it did not collapse in the area that the Engineers were worried about… it is further on… What a massive engineering project this is going to be, and the cost?/ Who knows… But for the greater good it will have to be done! And done correctly to last a long, long time!
This is all the fault of the Loquat thieves.
Anyone seen selling loquat jams/jellies in the area should be reported to the Police.
@Guy Carri – i’ve spoken to the head engineers long before this wall colapsed and stated i did’t want the traffic lights out side my house because the vibrations that the larger dumpsters, buses, etc… cause a significant amount of vibration (i had seen an abnormal amount of wall and roof cracks before they moved them). This could have contributed to the cause as vehicles wait next to this area….. this over a whole year might have contributed to the cause of this problem…
Of course it had an impact, it’s contributed greatly and only compounds the issue. The carriageway there needs to be redesigned and fortified for todays traffic.
How many other walls or streets in Bermuda are unsafe? How often does government or works and eng check the tunnel going thru black watch path ? We don’t need to century old tunnel to crash
W&E are reactive instead of proactive. What they should be doing now is sending out teams to all properties that border a main road and see if this will happen anywhere else? Larger trucks that the Govt. has allowed on the roads along with the constant abuse that the roads take make this occurrence likely in a few spots around the island! I’ve seen a few “walls” on the main road that are barely 6″ high limestone bricks that direct water along the road and could lead to this happening again somewhere else.
This appears to be poor design for drainage. Nothing more. Had it been done right the first time there would not be the erosion & buildup of water behind the wall. If a drainpipe from the road was run all the way to the pond, & not straight onto private property next to the road, there would not be the erosion of the bank caused by water coming from who knows where.
Yup. That’s the case in the majority of the drains around the island, poorly designed on the surface to begin, and little thought below as to what that run-off is going to do to the surrounding area.
Get D and J to rebuild the wall,that way it will not fall down!
Its a shame that Palmetto Road has had stop lights there
for months.If the homeowner below the road had built their
retaining wall years back like the other homeowners have
done there would be no stop lights there for months and
months.To this day the homeowner below hasn’t done a
thing and it is noone else’s fault but the homeowner below.
Government needs to make homeowners responsible for their
property and when it becomes a problem give them a fine and
plus make them build their retaining wall.
u obviously have no idea as to what actually happened,u should leave st george and come take a closer look