The mighty Hawkesworth Bridge in San Ignacio closed in May for urgent rehabilitation works and it re-opened yesterday, just a shade over 6 months later.
It was a much needed maintenance break for the 75 year old bridge and it included repairs to the suspension cables, girders, the deck, and the footpath - basically everything.
Well, it was re-opened today and the Minister discussed its rebirth:
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development
"We just do a periodic analysis of all bridges countrywide and we put it on a priority list and this was one of them that was in urgent need of repairs. It has not been repaired for quite some time and it's a historic bridge."
"It leads San Ignacio to the rest of the country. It has historical factor. It is important to the residents of the Cayo District and the country on the whole. We put it as one of our priorities and that's why it was done."
But how much longer can the bridge last? Can it make it to the century mark in 2049?
The engineers say that with this round of maintenance it is good for another 10 to 20 years, but the Minister sees it as longer than that:
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development
"We normally put, engineers would normally put a specific lifespan, but this bridge, I think, would last much more than that. Once it's properly maintained, that's the problem we have. The lifespan is determined by the amount of time and money you put to maintain anything."
"And so if the ministry, which we are administering right now, continues to do maintenance on structures like these, it could go for 50 years. If you do absolutely no maintenance and you leave it the way it was, yeah, it would be less than 10."
The bridge is named after a former governor.
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