The new Belize City Council has chosen concrete as the new long-term antidote for chronically bad streets. Sure, it's more expensive - but it lasts for decades - where conventional paving, what they call "chip and seal" only lasts a few years.
One major street to get an upgrade is Orange Street, which connects Cemetery Road to Albert Street. It was paved just two years ago with chip and seal - but poor drainage had destroyed that.
Now it's been replaced by concrete, plus the drainage is getting upgraded. We found out more today....
Jules Vasquez reporting
It's smooth rolling on Orange Street these days - after all one thousand plus feet of the city's busiest streets have been paved with concrete.
The contractor is M and M engineering - they are in their third week of work - which is slated for completion next week.
Roque Matus - Director, M&M Engineering
"It's approximately 1,140 feet, and we have concluded about 1050 feet. We have about 150 feet or so to finish the street. The time frame for us that we wanted to do the project in was 1 month, This Friday will be 3 weeks."
Director Roque Matus told us that working on the busy street posed its own problems:
Roque Matus
"Our main difficulty has been dealing with pedestrian traffic. On Orange Street, you have approximately a 1000 people walking on the street per hour, and sometime we are using half of the street. That's 10 feet, which gives them only 10 feet to walk on."
Another problem was all the drainage difficulties. Orange street was paved only two years ago and fell into ruin because of flooding - which is caused by poor drainage. But to get it right, Matus's crew had to dig up drains and install culverts at a number of intersections:
Roque Matus
"Well, there were 2 things that caused drainage difficulties on Orange Street. One was that there were some culverts missing on Euphrates Avenue, Mosul Street, and Amara Avenue. So, whenever it would rain, that area by Xtra House would form a swimming. So, we've gone in and begun to replace some of the culverts. We couldn't do all of them together because that would have shut down the city. We've replaced the Amara and Euphrates Avenue culverts. We're going to replace the Mosul Street culverts also. That way, the water will be able to go to the canal."
And now half of the street is open to vehicular traffic - which glides down the concrete surface as smooth as a friction free surface:
Roque Matus
"Well, you know, for the last 12 years, I've been studying roads through Central America, and I've seen that Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador - all of them - their city streets have been going to concrete. I've been liaising a lot with engineers from these countries because we exchange information. The concrete street is a lot more efficient in the long run because it is a little bit more expensive than a chip-seal road - initial costs. However, the lifespan of this road is like 30 -40 years. The best that a chipped-seal road will give you is 10 years, and even before that, as soon as water begins to pound on it, you'll have potholes. You'll then have repairs that will have to be done, We, in Belize, don't like to maintain. We need durable streets, and concrete is the answer. I must say that this city council has really been working towards good streets, and concrete has been their choice."
And while the city council is footing the bill - the two dozen workers are not city residents, but Matus says, don't let their appearance fool you,
Roque Matus
"These guys, most of them have been with me for 12 or 13 years. Most of them are from Guinea Grass Village. Every single one of them speak English. They are born-and-bred Belizeans."
The concrete crew will next move unto Daly Street. M & M is currently also working on TV Ramos Street in the Belama Area.
Queen Street will also be paved with concrete.
