Yesterday we showed you the portion of the Northern Highway, which collapsed after a mini-landslide on Wednesday night. Today the Ministry of Works began repairing the slowdown in traffic and that has caused endless bottlenecks on this much traveled highway. We'll tell you about those headaches in a bit, but first to the repair. A crane was moved in this morning to drive cement piles to build a new barrier. Ministry of Works engineer David Novelo told us more.
David Novelo, Engineer - Ministry of Works
"The original wall that we had is a PVC sheet piling with a concrete beam but due to the erosion behind the sheet pile, the thin wall collapsed towards the river. So right now we are trying to restore back the magnet of the road so that magna doesn't continue to sheer off. We will cement it back. We will fill it with road material, hardcore."
Keith Swift,
What caused this to collapse?
David Novelo,
"Well the same action of the water from the river. It tends to erode off the material from the embankment."
Keith Swift,
Is there a possibility that this could occur on other parts of this highway?
David Novelo,
"Well along this road there are various sections that need some attention and definitely this is the worst section."
Novelo says don't expect the repairs to be completed until Sunday. But the good news is that they should be done with the crane by tomorrow. But until then, you can expect the highway between the Haulover Bridge and mile 8 to be blocked intermittently. Those delays will be about an hour. This is being done as a safety precaution and the officer in charge of the Ladyville Police Station Inspector Chris Noble explains why it was a dangerous drive last night. We also spoke to some drivers about the delays.
Jules Vasquez,
This area, it will be like this for three days, at least, what do you have to tell drivers who have to use that part of the road?
Sgt. Chris Noble, Ladyville Police
"If you need to get to Belize City, try traveling a bit early. For those that are above the Burrell Boom junction, utilize the Western Highway and for those in the Ladyville area, just generally be very careful."
Driver #1: I've been waiting since three quarters of an hour, forty five minutes.
Keith Swift: Where were you heading to?
Driver #1: Right in Ladyville.
KS: You frustrated?
Driver #1: Not really. It is necessary for this road to be fixed. We travel it daily.
Driver #2: We've been here about one hour. One hour exactly and these people haven't finished yet with that thing. I don't know what has happened. From this morning when I came out, because I live in Ladyville, and when I came out at the airport junction the line was way more back. I turned back and I went by the Hattieville to reach to Belize City. You see how much money I spent on gas.
Airport Taxi Driver #1: We've been waiting for like fifty minutes. And when we came we had to wait another fifteen to twenty minutes before we left to go to town. We can't run any trip. We just made one trip and we are sitting down out here all day. It takes three hours to make one trip.
Taxi Driver #2: For our customers, we try to arrange with them to take them through Hattieville but the people don't want to pay the price so we have to still stay in this line until.
