CitCo’s Street Damage Assessment Has Collet with Costliest Repairs

The Belize City Council’s Street Damage Assessment Report, released late Monday, reveals that the Collet constituency tops the list for the most expensive repairs needed. Mesopotamia comes in second, while Fort George and Pickstock are the least costly. The total bill for fixing streets damaged by recent rains and floods is nearly one point six million dollars. Interestingly, even though Collet is the priciest to repair, it has only ten streets and thirteen sections needing work. On the other hand, Lake Independence has a whopping twenty-seven streets and twelve sections requiring repairs. News Five’s Marion Ali gives us a detailed breakdown of the streets and the repair costs.

 

Taxi Driver

“Dehn mi have umpteen time fi do the street before the rain start, long before the rain start dehn couldda mi do it, but dehn nuh do it. Now dehn wa blame the rain now right? The street the bruk up fi we vehicle and everybody else vehicle. Come on, that da past nonsense.”

 

Taxi Driver

“St Thomas Street, I nuh know who responsible for it but tell the minister or whosoever responsible fi that, tell dehn goh tek a lee drive out deh and see weh di goh on out deh. The roller coaster weh mi deh by the field betta than that.”

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

Many residents of Belize City are frustrated with the worsening condition of the streets, largely due to recent heavy rains. Mayor Bernard Wagner has assured that repairs will begin once the weather clears up. Late Monday, the Belize City Council shared a draft copy of a street damage assessment report, dated October thirty-first, detailing the number of streets and sections in each of the city’s ten constituencies that need various levels of repair. It shows the Lake Independence constituency to have the most streets that need repair at forty. That’s because while there are twenty-seven streets that need repair, three of them have more than one section that needs attention. Two of the streets, which haven’t been named, each have seven sections that need repairs. The estimated cost for materials to fix the Lake-I area is about forty-three thousand dollars.

 

In stark contrast, Collet, which borders Lake-I, has a list of ten streets, but thirteen sections overall that need repair. The price tag for the material to fix these streets is around four hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars. The Albert Division faces a bill of forty-nine thousand dollars for materials to fix just six streets. Over in Pickstock, eleven streets each need only one section repaired, costing about eight thousand, five hundred dollars in materials. Meanwhile, Fort George has four damaged streets, with repair materials estimated at around twenty thousand dollars. Queen Square has fifteen streets and two of them have two sections each to repair, which brings the number of sections to fix in that area to seventeen. The price for the material to repair is over two hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars.

 

The Freetown constituency has eleven streets in need of repair, and the cost for the necessary materials is estimated at seventy-three thousand dollars. The Belize City Council will have to spend a hundred and seventeen thousand dollars to purchase material for the Mesopotamia Division, which has four damaged streets to repair. Caribbean Shores has twenty-four streets to repair at a cost of a hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars for the purchase of material. The Port Loyola constituency needs a whopping one hundred and twelve thousand dollars for materials to repair nineteen streets and twenty-seven sections. Both taxi drivers and pedestrians we spoke to agree on one thing: the streets across the city desperately need fixing.

 

Pedestrian

“Most ah dehn got potholes soh dehn need fi fix.”

 

Marion Ali

“Anyone in particular?”

 

Pedestrian

“Vernon Street right deh. Vernon Street need fix. The streets dehn terrible, especially King Street, Euphrates Avenue, Amara Avenue – all dehn streets full ah water when ih rain. And nuh ask bout potholes.”

 

Driver

“One ah the streets that needs to be repaired is Rivero Street because it’s in a really bad condition. That’s one of the main streets on the southside.”

 

Marion Ali

“Has it affected the maintenance of your vehicle?”

 

Driver

“Nuh really. I know for my aunt, cause my aunt lives on that street, so I think they need to fix that street. The streets dehn wa fix in due time.”

 

Marion Ali

“Does it affect your vehicle?”

 

Driver

“Yeah ih affect the vehicle but wi can’t do nothing right now because the rain nuh want give break and hold up fi mek wi fix the street dehn but as soon as the rain hold up I think the guys wa fix the street. Some ah the streets dehn bruk up and I find dehn got a lotta water, especially when it rains, and stuff like that. I think dehn need fi do something to the streets dehn.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.