Surface Repairs Begin on Coastal Plain Highway

Heavy rainfall has exposed vulnerabilities along sections of the Coastal Plain Highway, but government engineers say the road’s structural integrity remains intact.

“The pavement itself has not been damaged; it’s only the wearing course, only the surface dressing, that has stripped off,” Chief Engineer Evondale Moody told News 5.

At Mile 22 near Gales Point, flooding returned, but upgrades carried out in recent years helped the water recede quickly. Concrete paving replaced asphalt, extra culverts were added, and drainage improvements near the Kwamina and Dead Man bridges allowed floodwaters to empty into the sea. “We believe the works that we did there helped,” Moody said, noting that the road remained intact despite being temporarily submerged.

He cautioned, however, that flooding in that stretch is not a problem that can be fully engineered away. The area sits within a large catchment zone that channels significant volumes of water, and raising the road high enough to stay above flood levels would come at a cost.

Repair work on the stripped wearing course sections began this morning.