Mile eleven culvert caves in

Motorists on the Western Highway need to exercise caution when driving home tonight. Just before news time, we received word that a culvert near mile eleven on the Western Highway has collapsed and traffic has been moving slowly in the area. Minister of State in the Ministry of Works, Edmund Castro gave us a phone interview just a few minutes ago about the situation.

Edmund Castro, Minister of Works, Ministry of State
“What happened is approximately about five-thirty-two, I was coming from Burrell Boom through the Boom/Hattieville road, from the Hattieville side to Belize City. I saw a vehicle out there about five-thirty-two this evening trying to control the traffic. When we stopped and checked there was another sinkhole in the middle of the highway. So we are mobilizing Ministry of Works to get out here and remedy the situation. What happen, this is one of the most trafficable highways in the country and we cannot afford to leave a situation like this. So we’ll be out here until we get this one remedy again.”

Jose Sanchez
“Mr. Castro, can vehicles pass or is it completely blocked?”

Edmund Castro
“No, it’s not completely blocked, we’re controlling the traffic from both ends so that the traffic going out west can pass and give time for the other ones coming to Belize City to pass. We have the highway partially open and the traffic is still flowing.”

Jose Sanchez
“Do you think this situation will remedied by tomorrow?”

Edmund Castro
“Hopefully, by twelve or two o’clock in the morning, we should have this under control. It’s one of the bigger ones which is two six foot culverts that are close together. The culvert is actually the metal culvert, it totally rot so the sinkhole appeared on the surface of the road. But we should be able to remedy this one, hopefully by two o’clock in the morning.”

Jose Sanchez
“Mr. Castro, does this make you want to go and check those other culverts that may be rotting also?”

Edmund Castro
“Yeah, what happen is the entire infrastructure should have been replaced from at least four, five years ago. So this is a result of the neglect that we are now seeing here manifesting on our highways as we have shown here again today.”