By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

TYRE shops and mechanics across New Providence are swamped with customers as pothole-riddled roads, worsened by recent rain, wreak havoc on vehicles and wallets alike.

From Carmichael Road to Eastern Road, Balfour Avenue to Robinson Road, the island’s streets are pitted with deep craters and sunken asphalt, turning morning commutes into obstacle courses that leave drivers fuming and repairs mounting.

At The Tire Outlet on Faith Avenue, workers said they now sell up to 30 tyres a day, a number that spikes whenever heavy rain conceals the holes beneath pools of water. “Usually when people come here the tires be burst, it need to be plugged or more air, but usually it is burst so people buy more tires,” a representative said.

Rubberband Tires has seen the same pattern. “Lets just say if 100 persons come here a day, out of the 100 persons, it’s 100 buying a tire. Everyone who comes here has the same problem concerning the potholes,” an employee said.

For mobile repairmen, the demand never stops. Baton Roker of Keeping You Moving Mobile Tire Repair said he now handles at least 15 calls a day. “There are potholes all over the island. You know my favorite thing I love to say, the potholes are my best employees in the world. I don’t got to give them a dollar and they to work every day,” he said, adding that cracked rims and shredded tyres have become routine.

Mechanic Kipln Moss said the damage goes far beyond tyres, with broken shocks, lower arms, and tie rods now a daily sight. He estimated that potholes are responsible for 90 percent of the problems his customers face.

Residents have taken social media with images of burst tyres, bent rims, and waterlogged streets, tagging officials and demanding action. Some have even begun charting the worst potholes online to help fellow motorists dodge the damage.

At the Ministry of Works, Superintendent Eric Rudon said repair crews are working “around the clock, basically seven days a week” alongside private contractors to patch roads across New Providence. He said teams respond to public complaints but admitted the number of potholes is so high “we don’t even count them.”

“It’s a variety of potholes in Nassau,” he said. “Small, large, medium, but I just trying to get the deepest set fixed first which I know would damage vehicles.”

In 2022, ministry officials announced a two-year paving programme to resurface 55 miles of road between January 2024 and June 2025, following a survey that used new technology to predict where potholes would form. Senior civil engineer Francis Clarke said most roads were graded “one” on a scale of one to five, meaning they were in poor condition, but pledged that once the paving network was stabilised, there would be far fewer pothole complaints.

Still, with thousands of potholes dotting the capital’s streets, that promise feels distant. In Abaco, residents say heavy rain has worsened conditions on major highways like the SC Bootle and Earnest Dean, while other islands are facing similar frustrations as deteriorating roads continue to damage vehicles and drain motorists’ pockets nationwide.