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Edmond "Clear the Land" Castro, the area representative for Belize Rural North, told us today that his constituents are most anxious to have the work finished, even though it's only just started:

Hon. Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Rep.
"The government of Belize through the PetroCaribe funds and the contractor is Rodla Construction. We begin the hot mix and the paving of the Old Northern Highway, the first 5 miles which will go somewhere in the Boston Area and as soon as we complete this first 5 miles from Sand Hill going in, we will commence another 7 miles, which will take us past Altun Ha Road somewhere in Lucky Strike area. So, this is some of the hard work that we are doing for the 9 villages on the Old Northern Highway. Much deserved. I think the last time this type of work was done similar to this was some 30-40 years ago and since then, no area representatives before that were able to get any of that done for the people along the Old Northern Highway."

Daniel Ortiz
"The total length of the road, will it be paved all the way to the end?"

Hon. Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Rep.
"Basically, I have been lobbying before I got elected. It's a beautiful road and about 12 villages will use that road. I have been lobbying and basically saying we should pave from Sand Hill to Tower Hill which would be very nice. That's the Old Northern Highway. In this first and second tranche is the first 5 miles out of PetroCaribe funds and then we are doing another 7 miles and then I will be lobbying again for another maybe 10 miles that would get us through at least to Maruba, which will cover most of the villages in my constituency along the Old Northern Highway."

Daniel Ortiz
"How many villages total would experience this improvement?"

Hon. Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Rep.
"We are looking at about 12-13 villages, because even the villages like Bomba or Maskall we haven't reached yet. This part of the road, all of us uses it, even though village as far as Santa Martha and so on making their way this way will enjoy the nice and beautiful highway."

Daniel Ortiz
"Have you gotten a reaction from the residence of the area knowing that this is on its way?"

Hon. Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Rep.
"Definitely, they can't wait to see it get done. For a long time we've been talking about it and they believe that even when we got the contractor, they believe the contractor was taking too long and the people are anxious."

Castro will lobby to have the whole length of the Old Northern Highway to be paved sometime in the near future.