Dock after complaints were made that a huge hole had appeared in the ground.

Chief Highways Engineer Mr. Dave Woodward told The Royal Gazette the problem was due to the weather conditions the Island had experienced lately.

"The problem was due to a combination of the rain and it not being able to drain away from the dock,'' Mr. Woodward said. "Workmen started working earlier this month on the problem and it was finished in a couple of days.'' The area has been besieged with problems since work started there last October.

Construction took longer than expected and partial collapses of different sections of the road caused further delays.

The Ministry hired Renaud Marine Services after the roadway and dock fell in while Government was moving heavy machinery last October to the Tynes Bay Waste Treatment Facility.

Renaud owner Mr. Chuck Renaud said the company suffered much the same difficulty with the road collapsing four times while they worked on it.

But Mr. Renauld said that the problem had nothing to do with his company's services.

"The area in question has nothing to do with Renaud Marine at all,'' he told The Royal Gazette . "We finished our work some four or five feet away from there so any problems are a result of work done by Works and Engineering.'' But a Works and Engineering spokesman, who was on the site to inspect the repairs being carried out, said: "The rain washed the filling that Renaud Marine Services put in there out.

"This will not happen again.'' He added: "If it were going to happen again we would see signs of the road becoming damaged now. It was not as dangerous as people thought it was but the size of the hole was a bit daunting.'' Works and Engineering Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons said: "We were working with a contractor to refill the area and at this point no blame is being put on Renaud Construction for the incident.

"The damage took place in an area which had not been concreted,'' he explained. "It was a settlement area.'' A fisherman in the area, who preferred to remain anonymous, said if the hole had not been filled immediately it would have undermined the footings in the wall, causing it to collapse.

"The hole was so deep that the rain water was actually washing right down into the sea,'' he said.

"The backfield on the side of the wall should have been concreted all the way through so that there would be less chance of water seeping through to cause the wall to undermine itself.'' A spokesman for the Ministry said work had now been completed and a large piece of concrete had been put into the road to ensure that the erosion does not recur.