Platina Street bridge cleared by community members
JUKSKEI PARK – With heavy flooding uprooting trees and debris into the river, the Douglasdale CPF Sector 1 community and sponsors gathered to remove the collected debris before more damage occurs.
The community came together to clear up the debris that accumulated after recent heavy rains.
Douglasdale Community Policing Forum (CPF) Sector 1 members and Jukskei Park residents took to Platina Street bridge on February 12 to remove debris and dead trees swept in from heavy rains.
With heavy rains plaguing the city on February 4, there have been flooding issues which saw a number of trees flow into the river and block the bridge.
The CPF and community members had previously cleared the bridge last month after it flooded, but it did not disrupt the flow of traffic due to it still being the festive season.
Public relations officer in the Sector 1 CPF Michael Tuck said community members came together to clean and remove the debris with a TLB machine thanks to the partnership of the Jukskei Park Community Forum and the CPF.
“When the rains happened on that Friday night [February 4], we had to block traffic because the water was coming over the bridge. We knew we had to clear the bridge on a weekend when there’s no rain forecasted. We would not have lasted if the bridge had flooded again,” he said.
“If we lose this bridge, then we are in serious trouble because it is our main road. This clean-up is much bigger than the one we had in January.”
The hired TLB machine lifted and dragged out big and medium-sized pieces of dead trees from the river blocking the bridge, which was then cut into smaller pieces with chainsaws.
The work began for the CPF and community members from 07:00 until just after 15:00 and had a lot of assistance from younger community members who also cleaned along the river banks while the bridge was cleared.
