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Ever seen construction workers walking nimbly across skinny beams on the tops of tall buildings and thought nothing of it? So did we until we visited a construction site for what promises to be one of Belize’s taller buildings and found that the air up there blows hard, and it’s like working on an ultra-high balance beam, without a net! It’s the proposed casino and hotel on the Pickwick grounds and it’s going up fast, and high. Today Jacqueline Godwin went inside, or on top of this rising tower and held on for dear life.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Construction workers have one of the most risky jobs because there is always the possibility of accidents and injuries on site but someone has to do the work no matter how high above ground it takes them. Luckily it was only the hard helmet on this young man’s head that blew away in the wind as he remain concentrated on tying steel from top of this huge building under construction on Newtown Barracks. It towers above the roof tops of neighbouring houses, the street and the traffic below.

Working from such a great altitude has become almost a daily routine for these young men who brave weather elements and the height to earn a living but just what is it like to work under such conditions? Well today I ventured onto the property to have a better feel of what it is like to be on the inside. On the ground I first found out that what i was witnessing is an engineering novelty in Belize.

Roque Matus, Owner/Director – M&M Engineering
“This building is a pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete building and it is built from a factory and all the parts are transported here and assembled on site. Normally we do it in steel. This is the first time we are doing a building of this size in concrete where all the parts are actually fabricated in a factory, brought to site, and a crane installs them and the workers then connect them together.”

The technique is being much preferred because of the speed in which the building is erected. In this case, the construction is expected to be completed in only six months.

Shaun Dortch, Foreman
“Well it is nice, it is a privilege to be working on a building this size out of pre-fab and I am learning a lot right now as we speak.”

And while there is always an element of danger to construction work the technique offers the men a more secured environment because there is better quality control of the factory made materials they must use.

Roque Matus,
“Most of the concreting is done on the ground, rather than sixty or seventy feet high where the men have to negotiate with the elements, the air and the height itself and the safety.”

Once completed the four storey fifty room hotel and casino will be sixty two feet high. While it is not one of the biggest buildings to be constructed in Belize working from such high heights can be a thrilling experience. I mean right now I am sixty two feet above ground, I literally have to be bracing myself because the higher you go the stronger the breeze. But I do feel secured with the concrete slab below my feet and this hard hat on. And you would be surprise to find out that not many construction workers like to adhere to the precaution measures put in place for their safety.

Shaun Dortch,
“We enforce it here because it is right for them to use it and it is for their safety. A lot of them don’t like to use their safety equipment but we already have a solution for that, we send them home permanently.”

Roque Matus,
“When they are installing products it is difficulty to use a safety harness but normally what we do is we set the products down and then they begin to walk on it like a finished building and also here we do a lot of work with cranes. Right now we are doing any crane work at this very moment but a lot of work is done with the crane. So really while we are installing we only have five people that are installing the product. But these guys, also for a normal human being, they are afraid of heights and so but we have been doing this for the last seven years and they are kind of use to working in that environment with the height.”

But as I found out what it is like to be a construction worker little did I expect that I would also get the opportunity to meet probably the only female site engineer in the country. And then I wondered that was that like for twenty seven year old Ramy Chia.

Ramy Chia, Site Engineer
“Well at first it was a little bit with the men because a lot of them didn’t like, straight out they would tell me that they didn’t like women telling them what to do but it has been a little journey that I had to get across and now here I have no problems with that issue of me being a woman and telling them what to do. They understand I am the boss and what I say goes.”

Roque Matus,
“There are not a lot of females attracted to engineering but any engineer that has gone through the mills studying is someone that has great characteristics for this type of work.”

Ramy Chia,
“There is nothing we can’t do. That is basically it because many people thought that this being here with thirty men under me would be tough but I think, like you’ve said, prove it can be done so don’t think there is anything we can’t do.”

The construction of the hotel and casino which we understand is the property of a group of Belizean investors is scheduled to be completed sometime in April. For 7 on the Inside I am Jacqueline Godwin.

Join us in two weeks for another edition of 7 on the Inside. And please, send your suggestions for what you would like to see the inside of to tvseven@btl.net.