Jack’s retaining wall almost complete

The construction of the retaining wall at the Jack property at Ratho Mill which has caused the closure of one of the lanes of the Windward Highway for almost three years now is almost complete.{{more}}

But it will still be sometime before the route is reopened, says Alistair Campbell, Deputy Chief Engineer in the Ministry of Transport, Works, Urban Development and Local Government.

“I don’t think we’ve actually determined the specific date when we will reopen that road, but I can say that the contractor is supposed to be working behind the wall, doing the backfilling,” said Campbell, noting that until that is completed, there is no urgency on the path of the Ministry to reopen the road.

He said the Ministry has done a lot with regard to the design of the wall, going as far as consulting with the University of the West Indies, St.Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago.

“Based on that, we want to be fairly confident about the type of wall that was designed. So our next issue would be, ‘Was this wall constructed in accordance with the designs and specifications?’ And to that extent, the Ministry has been involved in the quality control and monitoring of the construction,” said Campbell, adding that the wall is owned by Alex Jack, who has a private contractor carrying out the work.

“We certainly are trying to do our best to ensure that the wall is constructed in accordance with the designs and specifications,” said Campbell.

On Friday, September 19, 2008, about 60 feet of retaining wall from a property owned by Alex and Lisa Jack came tumbling down on 67-year-old Patricia Jack-Bowman, killing her in her vehicle as she headed to her restaurant at Canash.

A major contributor to the tragedy was the eight inches of rain that was recorded over a 48-hour period.

The rain was caused by the passing of a tropical wave which interacted with a trough system between Thursday, September 18 and Saturday, September 20, 2008.

On September 18, 2009, a Coroner’s Inquest into Jack-Bowman’s death ended with a five-member jury ruling that the cause of her death was manslaughter, a result of negligence on the part of the engineer and contractors who constructed the wall.

But in a letter dated October 14, 2009, addressed to Nicole Sylvester, one of the lawyers who represented the estate of Patricia and Alban Bowman, Director of Public Prosecutions, Colin Williams, decided not to indict anyone in relation to the death of Jack-Bowman.

The DPP told SEARCHLIGHT that his decision was arrived at after careful consideration of the facts.

“When I reviewed the decision of the coroner’s jury and also the evidence on which they based their decision, it didn’t make practical sense to proceed,” said Williams.

He said the lawyers representing Bowman could file a civil action.