A Sink Hole at Mile 38 – Works Respond!
A few miles away, a portion of the road at thirty-eight and a half on the George Price Highway has proven to be problematic during this rainy season. A large hole appeared at a temporary crossing at the area where the rains washed out in June of this year. That hole caused traffic to come to a stop on the George Price Highway for close to eight hours straight. Ministry of Works personnel were on the ground working hard to get the traffic flowing and by midday, the highway was reopened for a brief time before they resumed the works. It wasn’t until around four-thirty that it was permanently reopened for motorists to continue their journey. Today, a News Five team visited the scene to find out what caused the hole and what engineers are doing to get a long term solution in place. Reporter Andrea Polanco has the story.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
Around four o’clock this morning, a sink hole appeared at mile thirty-eight and a half on the George Price Highway. It happened at the spot where the temporary fix was put in place torrential rains caused a culvert to collapse about five months ago. Senior Executive Engineer and Maintenance Coordinator in the Ministry of Works Irving Thimbrel explains says that some small cracks appeared on this portion of the highway around six on Thursday evening and during the night the gaps widened and by three or four this morning the fine material from this portion of the highway began to wash away. And that’s when Thimbrel made the decision to stop vehicular traffic because when the hope appeared it compromised the structural integrity of the road.
Irving Thimbriel
Irving Thimbriel, Senior Executive Engineer, Ministry of Works
“As we can see the water is flowing freely through the body of the brocket which we consider like a large French drain. The fines started to, as it was raining, the water started to percolate through and then some of those fines started to filter through and then as the water was passing through it washed away those fines. So we ended up having a large hole and that is what we are filling up. It’s the loss of the material that the water took away while it was raining last night. We also think that downstream from the velocity of the water it caused or created some scour in the body of the French drain itself so we replenishing that now.”
Ministry of Works personnel and equipment have been working to repair the damage to the highway since early this morning. Thimbrel says that the stones placed there months ago are still in place – so they are replacing the other materials that washed away. He anticipates that this will hold.
Irving Thimbriel
“None of the big stones were removed from the area. So, the stones removed and so what we are going to do is that we are going to stockpile some material and we are going to be ready to mobilize that if whatever happens we are going to replenish those fines in a more expeditious manner. The problem right now is that the quarries are open until eight o’clock in the morning and that is what is taking us so long. But this is going to be a very quick thing to remedy.”
…and by ten minutes to twelve, the area was temporarily re-opened for traffic to flow which was a relief for motorists as there were lines of vehicles on both sides of the highway. Some drivers told us that they were waiting for more than seven hours. An inconvenience, no doubt, but they took it all in stride and left as soon clearance was given.
Candelaria Choco, Motorist
“I am just here right now because we come from Belize City heading to Punta Gorda. So, we are just waiting until the road gets through and we go back.”
Andrea Polanco
“From what time have you been out here?”
Candelaria Choco
“We are here from about six-thirty this morning.”
Candelaria Choco
Andrea Polanco
“So, you are out here a whole half day before you get to your destination?”
Candelaria Choco
“Yes. Waiting.”
Andrea Polanco
“Does this hamper your plans in any way; the things you had to do today?”
Candelaria Choco
“No. We’re enjoying the weather and the time.”
Alberto Chan
Alberto Chan, Motorist
“Hmm. It is a bad experience because we can’t pass on this bad road. We are here from before five or five o’clock and we are going way to PG. And as you can see the road is bad so we can’t do anything right now. We have three trucks right now and we can’t move. I don’t know what happened with these people that they can’t fix the road yet.”
Andrea Polanco
“And so you left from orange Walk you said – what are you guys heading to do in PG, business?”
Alberto Chan
“Yes. We are carrying goods, all kinds of things and we can’t go right now.”
Andrea Polanco
“And so your clients, I imagine, are waiting for you down there?”
Alberto Chan
“Yes they are waiting for us but we can’t do anything. Some customers are already calling for us as the office tells us nuh but we can’t do nothing.”
Andrea Polanco
“This is bad for business for you guys for this to happen?”
Alberto Chan
“Yes because we are supposed to reach around this time dah PG, but you see this done happen so we can’t do anything right now.”
And while it took some hours to get done – the long and short of it is that this is a temporary solution. It’s been five months since the area was affected by the heavy rains in June – so why is it only now that the Ministry is addressing it? Thimbrel says that while you may not have seen activity on site – they were getting things done – and expect that in another six weeks – the problem will be permanently addressed if we don’t experience severe rainy weather conditions.
Irving Thimbriel
“If you are building a bridge out here, you all are aware of how long the bridges take to be built. If we were building a bridge out here it would have taken more than the time – people are saying six months. What we are building are some twelve by twelve precast culverts. We will stay with the forms and we will continue to do projects of a similar nature. It takes a while to build those forms. We took about a month and a half or two months to build those forms and now it is going to take another month and a half to build the culverts. Right now, we are about nine away from completing those culverts. That is going to be a permanent solution.”
Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
