VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Disaster Risk Management Division (DRMD) has announced that the Beolière road in Port Glaud will be partially reopened this weekend, to allow the national electoral process to proceed without interruption.
The road was closed to all vehicles and pedestrians on Tuesday, September 30, following the September 15 rockfall incident that prompted authorities to declare the area a potential danger zone under the Disaster Risk Management Act, 2014. The closure was initially expected to last 15 days. Officers and contractors have since been working to safely remove a 200-tonne overhanging boulder threatening the area, with families from two nearby houses evacuated and another 20 people from six homes partially evacuated for safety reasons.
According to DRMD’s senior risk management officer Jade Landry, the project is moving forward steadily, with the road partially reopened temporarily from 4pm on Friday to ensure that the presidential election’s second round can proceed smoothly. ‘Once the project started, we noticed that the rock has different joints, which made it more difficult to break. We had to resort to more extreme safety measures to protect those working on site,’ she explained.
Project geologist Jean-Luc Mondon reported that between 65 and 80 tonnes of the boulder have already been safely removed, with the team now moving to build a five-to-seven-metre-wide, five-to-nine-metre-high gabion wall to protect the road. The wall will remain as a permanent fixture to prevent future rockfall incidents. The road will close again from Tuesday, October 14 at 8am when blasting works resume.
