It is, by all estimated, a daily growing disaster – a large part of the nation was paralyzed this morning when a portion of the Western Highway was washed away. Paralysed because like we told you earlier, the Boom Road is flooded, and when mile 9 on the Western Highway had a partial collapse, for a few hours there was no way for vehicles to get in and out of the city. Almost unthinkable, but it didn’t just up and happen. It started last night at midnight when out 7NEWS team was out on the highway for a preview of things to come.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
It looks more like a sinkhole than a pothole but this is the virtual cater like orifice that Minister of State in the Ministry of Works Edmund Castro almost drove into last night at a few minutes to midnight.

Hon. Edmund Castro, Minister of State
“On our way from Sunset Park and 8 miles we ran into this what seems or what appears to be a pothole. We swerved away from it and then we stopped. As the Minister of State in the Ministry of Works anything concerning roads is of interest to me as well and so we stopped and when we checked it out we saw that it was a crater which is about 5 to 6 feet in diameter.”

And possibly as many feet deep. This is what it looks like inside – there’s nothing there holding up the road, the entire foundation has been eroded by the floodwater. It is simply being held by the cohesion of the wafer thin pavement – which if left un-noticed, at night would have been a sure recipe for disaster.

Hon. Edmund Castro,
“Disaster. This hole can take up a small car easily and all you will see probably is the taillight of the car. So it would have been real disaster.”

But disaster was averted as the road was closed from midnight until 6:00 am. During that time Castro mobilised a nearby private work crew to patch it up – in time for the morning traffic.

Jules Vasquez,
There are thousands of Belizeans on this highway, just tomorrow morning there will be thousands. Should we be extra vigilant for suspicious potholes?

Hon. Edmund Castro,
“Yes, definitely. A 100 yards from here the next one can happen.”

6 hours alter a commuter saw this 200 yards away, near the entrance to Westlake Park at mile 9.

Hon. Edmund Castro,
“As soon as we finished and were prepared to go in with the equipment we found out by a commuter through a phone call that there is also another culvert that had collapsed at mile 9 on the Western Highway.”

It may look like just a gusher at the road shoulder but inside is like a water filled cavern – and again, there’s nothing holding up the road – a full half of the road held up by just the cohesion of the pavement crust.

But this is far different from what we saw last night because this was the height of the morning rush – mostly everyone heading into the city for work and school and the road was closed for about two hours. And then it was opened to light trucks and cars, but closed to container trucks and busses as police battled to control traffic, this one looked like he was landing a plane, while NEMO’s Phillip Willoughby, always eager to get in on the action, assisted.

And while cars passed on the safe side of the road, busses were not allowed, and travellers had to carry their loads and walk about a half a mile through water to get across the trouble area. These schoolchildren had been on their bus for about an hour when we got there and after a while just had to decide to hike it over to the next side, this child looked like he was late for school while others seemed to enjoy the barefoot brigade.

And while they walked past – slowly, the road was giving way – being taken into the coarsing currents. First a small piece falls away and then a bigger piece, and then another fissure appears and that leads to the collapse of a whole chunk of pavement.

And while the road collapsed, so did this stranded bystander Alex Recinios who was waiting for the road to clear. Police and NEMO officials rushed to help but none of them seemed to know CPR or even how to take a pulse, so they held his head. He was mostly unresponsive and so they trundled him into a police mobile and carted him off to the KHMH.

And as he was whisked off, the excavator – which had been on its way for hours, got to work, exposing what lies beneath the road – which is just water. Frightening to think again, how many cars and buses had been driving on that.

And the cause? This zinc culvert – now reduced to mangled detritus by the ferocious running water working its way into the Almond Hill Lagoon. When the excavators work was done, the road was like a decorative carapace above a swollen river.

And the next step a temporary measure was to compact the hole with these boulders. Castro who had been on the road since midnight told us what was the plan

Hon. Edmund Castro,
“What we are doing is we are excavating out the whole collapsed culvert which is no good and we are using a temporary method in using some boulders and hardcore so that the traffic will be able to pass without any problem.”

It is a temporary measure, but the question is, on this very flooded road, which culvert will go next?

The Ministry of Works continues to monitor, and a little later on, we’ll hear from Works CEO and engineer Cadet Henderson on what precisely are the risks on the Western Highway.