Legislator: ‘Urgent intervention’ needed with landslides on PR-667 in Manatí

District 13 Rep. Jerry Nieves Rosario said that along one of the sections of PR-667 in Manatí that has been subject to landslides “urgent intervention is needed because the road is on the verge of collapse. This could cause a road closure, as well as the collapse of the main water line of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, which supplies water to the community.”

By THE STAR STAFF

District 13 (Manatí, Florida, Barceloneta and Arecibo) Rep. Jerry Nieves Rosario, who chairs the Northern Region Committee in the island House of Representatives, conducted a site visit earlier this week pursuant to House Resolution 282 to investigate the actions taken by the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP by its acronym in Spanish) regarding the serious and highly concerning problem of constant landslides and soil erosion on Highway 667 in the Cortés neighborhood of Manatí.

“We are thoroughly investigating the ongoing landslide problems on Highway 667 (between kilometer 6.5 and kilometer 6.8) in the Cortés neighborhood of Manatí, as this poses an imminent danger to our residents and those who travel through the area, since it is their only entrance and exit,” the lawmaker stated. “The other alternate route takes an hour.”

“This problem dates back to Hurricane Maria in 2017, when the mountain began to slide in those sections,” Nieves Rosario noted. “In one of those sections, urgent intervention is needed because the road is on the verge of collapse. This could cause a road closure, as well as the collapse of the main water line of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, which supplies water to the community.”