MIDH says Belize is not First Country to Use Tires to Build Roads

When we visited the location earlier today, we met a team of workmen laying down the tires in what Moody describes as a geo-grid which is used to reinforce soils and similar materials.  Geogrids are much stronger in tension compared to soil. This strength lets them spread forces over a larger area of soil, making the ground more stable and secure than it would be otherwise.  Here’s more from MIDH.

 

Santiago Juan, Ministry of Infrastructure Development & Housing

“It’s an old technology in which, basically, you’re providing a firmer base for low-lying parts of the road.  You dump over them and form like a cell, like a honeycomb, and once you dump over them, they stay in place and you raise the road.  It’s much cheaper and very environmentally friendly and easy to do.  So that’s what, basically, they are for.”

 

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH

“The ministry, itself, has a large fleet of equipment and we continuously have to be changing out tires but there’s no use for those old tires.  We can’t burn them, there’s no way we can discard them and so the process that we are implementing, as far as we know, it’s an environmentally friendly process because we are basically just burying the tires and using them within the road construction industry to help us elevate the road formation and also protect it from being inundated by floodwaters.  So the idea that we are implementing on the More Tomorrow Road, we believe that it will be more beneficial to the community.  Once this is proven to be successful in Belize, then it’s something that we would be able to try in other areas throughout the country.  This is not the first country that is implementing this technology, it is being done in Central America, it’s being done in the U.S. and also in Canada and some parts of Europe as well.”