Risk of landslips after rain could 'persist for weeks'

The danger of further landslips could persist for weeks because of the wet weather in Jersey.

A large section of the footpath fell away on the Railway Walk on Wednesday night, leading to its closure.

Tristen Dodd, head of highways, transport and infrastructure, said "intense rainfall" was creating "high pressure" underground.

It comes as farmers say they face "losing their entire crop" if the rain continues much longer.

There is currently no through route between Les Quennevais and St Aubin along the Railway Walk because of the landslip.

The closure is expected to last several weeks and engineers have deemed further collapse is possible.

It comes after significant rainfall across the Channel Islands which meant Jersey's Infrastructure & Environment (I&E) department had to remove debris from the roads and issue travel warnings.

The government has also urged islanders to be mindful of standing water on the roads, and to check for blocked drains around residential properties.

Dodd said scenes like those on the Railway Walk could continue for some time.

"As the water table builds up, it creates higher pressures further down, you can see that often in country walls with streams coming out the walls, and that's exactly what happened on the Railway Walk."

"The danger can persist for days or weeks, but once the water table gets very high and you have a very wet winter, it can last for months."

"You've got hard impermeable granite and then you've got soils above that, and the water is trapped between the granite and the soils," he said.

The ongoing wet weather is also causing problems for farmers.

Didier Hellio normally grows a range of crops at his farm in St Ouen but he says this year is proving "very challenging".

"Instead of growing, they're going downhill, they certainly need a break in the weather or I'm going to lose the whole lot," he said.

"The fields of potatoes, in some areas where the water is running to the bottom of the field, they're underwater. Once they get to 48 hours underwater, they will rot.

"I've never seen so much rain coming down, never in my life. We did have a very dry November and December and it seems nature has a way of changing things around."

He said concerns about the weather were being felt by farmers all over the island.

"We're all in the same boat together. We're just playing a waiting a game. We've all got staff waiting too, just eager to get going. It's not easy. You do get fallow years in farming, but this year is very challenging".

Current weather forecasts have rain continuing to fall in Jersey for at least the next three days, before easing off into next week.

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