The deep hole, which opened up in the seawall behind El Tico on Saturday [30 January] night, was described as ‘very dangerous and unstable’ by the police.
A total of 38 tonnes of concrete was used yesterday as part of initial repairs to the wall, the Infrastructure Department’s transport director Tristen Dodd said. He added that the area would remain cordoned off while the repair took place.
The damage to the seawall was caused by a large swell and waves at the weekend.
Mr Dodd said there had been a ‘huge amount of water’ washing over the structure and the force of the waves had been like a ‘hammer hitting the wall’.
He said that the wall was inspected regularly, including after every storm and had been scheduled for inspection this week.
Mr Dodd added that some of the wall masonry would be replaced later this week, although he said that this task depended on the tide, which had the ‘really large potential for further damage’.
While immediate repairs will take place this week, other planned work is expected to take a few weeks.
The bad weather also caused a number of landslides around the Island over the weekend, including one large one at Belcroute.
A landslide on Gorey Hill on Sunday temporarily blocked the road near Gouray Church, while Old Beaumont Hill is due to remain closed until 4 February as a roadside bank is unstable. Stabilisation works are taking place. Mr Dodd said that it was not uncommon to see regular landslides in winter due to heavy rainfall, which caused the ground to become sodden and some steep banks to become unstable.
