Potholes sprout as bad weather persists

While Belize may not have had much flooding this year, our roads have not escaped the usual damage brought on by constant rain. As Patrick Jones found out this afternoon, potholes are not just a nuisance, they can be very damaging to vehicles, and costly for drivers.

Barry Reimer, Supervisor, Caribbean Tire

“The primary example is bent up tires like this. Or even worst than this, these are from over a period of time, the steel webbing inside the tire gets broken and that’s when you see the bent tire. The more immediate sign would be something like this, which is an immediate bust on a tire, or you would have bulge coming out on the side.”

Patrick Jones, Reporting

The stack of tires at this repair shop is mute testimony of a problem that has become chronic on city streets…potholes. Barry Reimer, one of the managers at Caribbean Tire says the impact is taking a toll on more than just the pockets of car owners.

Barry Reimer

“Last couple weeks we have had a big increase in this type of tires, bulges in the sides, bent up tires, bent rims, all due to really big knocks from big holes.”

Those holes are making life miserable for motorists especially along the Northern Highway between the Haulover Bridge and the City. City Councillor with responsibility for streets, Marshall Nunez, deferred our request for an interview to the City Engineer Rick Magaña who has refused comment on the situation. Reimer says although he is benefiting from the business boom, the situation cannot continue.

Barry Reimer

“If the city council doesn’t repair the holes better than they have been doing, with throwing in stones. I mean a stone is worst than putting in nothing. So if they do not properly fix the roads, yes, we will have a big increase in damaged tires.”

And in the meantime, what can motorists do to minimize damage?

Barry Reimer

“Well the biggest thing that you can do is not to drop in the holes. But of course we cannot do that all the time. But drive through the hole as slowly as possible, maintain a good tyre pressure, to minimize the hit, and that’s basically all that we can do. We just have to get out of the holes, stay out of the holes.”

“In a way you would say it is good business for us. But in away we would say it’s not. Because when customers come back with tires like that, they want warranty and we do not really cover warranty as such; that would come under road hazard. We only warranty on manufacture defect, but we still try to understand the customer and we try to find a solution to help the customer. So we do give discounts or sometimes we actually do give warranties on those tires because we are for the customer, we want to help the customer so that he doesn’t loose too much.”

Reimer says the type of vehicle you drive doesn’t really matter if improperly fitted or under inflated tires are used. And until the City Council decides its time to fix the roads, Reimer says drivers should take it slow.

Barry Reimer

“Any vehicle can experience it, but the bigger the vehicle, in some cases it’s less prone to happen. The tire that is more vulnerable is a low profile tire for those sports cars and stuff that have very low sidewalls. Those are most vulnerable to structural impact. This tire itself has a little bit of cushioning here, so it’s not going to happen as much. But if you have a heavy vehicle with a soft tire, it’s going to do that. So it all depends on the weight of the vehicle and the profile of the tire.

Patrick Jones, for News 5.

Although he declined to do an on camera interview, City Councillor Marshall Nunez did tell News 5 that the Belize City Council is only responsible for the maintenance of city streets and that highway repairs fall to the Ministry of Works.