St. George's -- as concern has been raised by a Senator.

Erosion damage from Hurricane Gert last September crept to within a few inches of a wooden fence at roadside and just a foot from the asphalt surfacing.

The site is a short distance south from Fort St. Catherine and St. Catherine's Beach and due east of the former Club Med Hotel.

It is about halfway between the junctions of Barry Road and Coot Pond Road to the north and Barry Road and Grenadier Lane in the south.

The huge gash is relatively unnoticible from passing motor vehicles but walkers can easily see how dangerously close the cliff face comes to the fence.

It was first photographed in the wake of Hurricane Gert and a recent visit by Royal Gazette photographers revealed nothing had been done in the past year.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said yesterday that engineers had evaluated the erosion damage but had not made a decision as to how the cliff will be shored up.

"Government is not only aware of the problem, but we are programmed to address it,'' Mr. Scott said. "Our challenge is to decide how to approach it, whether via a crane at roadside or by a barge on the water.

"The problem is a technical one and it would be very difficult to position a crane there to do the job and the barge approach would be far greater and take longer,'' he added.

"It certainly is not dangerous for people to use Barry Road, otherwise the technical officers would have recommended to close the road. However, yes, we do intend to address this as fast as we can.'' Mr. Scott added: "We certainly can't let this go on much longer. It is going to receive remediation.

"Just when is a little difficult because the overland approach would mean sooner and the water approach would be later. To the extent that we needed to close the road, the engineers were aware of how it came to within a few feet of the road, but we intend to deal with it.'' Opposition Senator Kim Swan, who works in the area, raised concern last week, saying he has been approached by a fisherman who sees the huge gash from the water daily.

"It's a sandy base and there's some concern that with some heavy rain like we've been getting or strong winds the road will be undermined,'' Sen. Swan said. "It is a spot for sightseeing and some kind of demarcation needs to be done as to the danger. It may be an area that may need to be totally avoided or we may need to reduce the amount of stress (motor vehicle usage) that area gets,'' he added. "The unanswered questions are how safe is it at the road level and when are they going to do something about it?''