Emergency repairs at Fort St. Catherine must be carried out soon to stop a main wall from falling down, Government said.

On June 28, the Parks Department was granted final Planning approval for its ?Fort St. Catherine, Phase One Repairs?.

This was less than one month after the application was first received on May 30.

Fort St. Catherine is owned by the Parks Department which the Development Applications Board (DAB) called one of Bermuda?s most historic forts and popular tourist attractions.

?The damaged wall areas have been addressed by the Structures Section of the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing, and they have confirmed that there is a significant possibility that the damaged portions of the flank wall will fail if not repaired,? the DAB said.

It added that due to the ?sensitivity and urgency? of the work, various authorities had worked together to grant a quick approval.

However, these are the second set of repairs to the fort since March 2000, when Planning approved an application to repair a collapsed rock face at the fort using mass concrete.

Park Planner Drew Petit said in the application on May 28 that an existing erosion problem in the main wall on the fort?s eastern side was made worse by storm surge during Hurricane Fabian.

Mr. Petit also told Planning if the wall failed, ?this would be catastrophic to the fort, which is an icon to Bermuda.?

The Works and Engineering and Housing plans said the areas of undercut rock near the beach will have to have all loose materials removed from them using water jets up to a depth of 54 inches from the original rock face. Concrete will then be used to fill the holes and its surface finished to match the surrounding rock, it said.

Trials of this process were carried out at the Government quarry, it said. The World Heritage Site Committee, the Historic Building Advisory Committee, the St. George?s Preservation Authority and the Corporation of St. George?s supported the application, the DAB said. It said the fort was built in 1612, rebuilt at least once before 1800, the present structure was erected in 1820, it was enlarged in 1830 and rearmed with cannon in 1870.