Heavy rains ruin roads, spawn floods
The weather: it’s a subject that everybody talks about but nobody can even hope to influence. It does influence us though as the almost week of stormy weather nationwide is bringing outdoor work to a halt, driving tourists crazy and wreaking havoc on roads, large and small. Having driven to work this morning from Ladyville, bad pavement is something I know about.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
The Northern Highway, especially the stretch between the Philip Goldson International Airport and Belize City, is one of the busiest roads in the country. Over two months ago, the perennially deteriorating thoroughfare began to experience a major break up much to the discomfort of the eight thousand motorists who use the highway each day.
The potholes have grown in both diameter and depth. The abominable state of the road has been hard on vehicles as motorists drop into cavities that quickly swallow wheels and damage tires and suspensions.
Motorist
?Extremely, more often you have to go in and get your front ends aligned. If you are lucky if not you blow out a tire or you bend a rim and things instead of getting better seem to be getting worse.?
Motorist
?It is bad when it rains. You can see it you know, everybody has to worry about that. You cannot drive around cause it breaks up your vehicle and all kind of thing.?
Motorist
?More than wear and tear. Right now my engine seems as if something is wrong with it. Last night I was coming up and I jumped into a pothole and it was real deep.?
But deep is not necessarily bad for the folks at Caribbean Tire, strategically located at mile three. Branch manager Karl Reimer says only yesterday they destroyed two trailers full of damaged tires. Today, this container is already at its half way mark. According to Reimer many drivers are not aware of the punishment that their vehicles have sustained until it?s too late.
Karl Reimer, Branch Manager, Caribbean Tire Wholesale Ltd.
?A blow out seldom happens. But the sidewall, the interior or the carcass has a little damage and then after a couple of weeks or after a couple hundred miles you start to see that they start to wobble.?
The Ministry of Works periodically would fill the holes with sand or sometimes stone and tar but the repairs have only been temporary solutions to a problem that drivers say is becoming painfully clear.
Motorist
?I was thinking of that just a few minutes ago while coming in. We were promised by Cadet Henderson that he was waiting for the weather to get right and that he would have taken care of it. Perhaps the weather has not gotten really right for him because it has not been taken care of. Meanwhile we beat up the vehicles and that?s it.?
Karl Reimer
?Many times we have a problem here at this company that people come and say the tires are no good and the brand is no good and we want a different brand. But that does not make any difference.?
?All the brands do the same thing. There are some that more vulnerable than others, some are more sturdy tires. If you have more plies like six plies, eight plies or ten plies they hold out much more. But the regular passenger tire is very vulnerable for those sharp edges of these potholes. If you go a little bit too fast and you will have a damaged tire.?
And making matters worse is the suddenness with which the waters can rise. This morning in the space of a half hour this piece of road in front of Divine Mercy Church went from dry to inundated. Much to the detriment of these two pedestrians, who hopefully reached their destination unharmed.
Elsewhere in the city businesses resorted to sandbags to fight the rising waters, as forecasters warned the public to prepare for more rain.
More rain is forecast for Wednesday with localised flooding predicted for the Coastal Road, Mile Eight and Gracie Rock areas. About the only positive aspect to the precipitation is the wattage being generated by the Chalillo and Mollejon hydroelectric facilities. Both power plants are allowing full flows through their turbines and B.E.L. has satisfied national demand without cranking up its fossil fuel generators, relying only on hyrdo supplemented by purchases from Mexico.
