Last night the Phillip Goldson highway had to be closed to traffic near the junction with the BSI Tower Hill Factory. That's after a culvert gave way - due to the high volume runoff from heavy rains.
We spoke to the Ministry of Infrastructure's Chief Engineer this evening about the rupture of the culvert and the repairs which have been underway since morning.
Voice of: Lennox Bradley
"Over the past 48 hours we received about 5 inches of rainfall. Thats a lot of water over 48 hours. We would have this sort of run-off because of the velocity of the run-off, we might have some partial washout and that is exactly what happened to the culvert approaching the BSI junction in Orange Walk. Its roughly around maximum 8 inches of material had washed away from the surface of the culvert and water was still flowing up to early this morning, but by 7:30 it has receded to a level where the contractor could mobilize and back fill the area. So from about 7:30 this morning the highway was opened again. About 8pm last night we had diverted traffic, because we were concern about the safety of road users."
Jules Vasquez
"What would you say is the likelihood of a recurrence of this with the continuing rains?"
Voice of: Lennox Bradley
"The sort of intensity that we had yesterday, it's not the same right now."
