Residents of the Lords Bank Community have been gifted with a brand new bridge which gives them better access to a portion of the Belize River to launch boats. It was built by a troop of engineers from BATSUB in collaboration with the Belize Defense Force.
While the community benefits from this new bridge, the BDF and BATSUB will get to use the area for jungle and riverine training that would normally take place in the Mountain Pine Ridge area. However, the logistics for such a training regimen are too expensive and challenging to implement, so the site on the outskirts of Lords Bank provides a viable alternative.
This afternoon, 7News visited the newly-constructed bridge, and we spoke with representatives of BATSUB and the BDF about its construction. Here's what they told the press:
Lt. Col. Jermaine Burns - Acting Chief of Staff, B.D.F.
"So, about three years ago, just before the pandemic, we had come at the back here, along with our British partners, to look at a way that we could bridge the gap between riverine training, all the way in the mountain ridge area, verses riverine training in the river here. We did an environmental impact assessment on a river. We did a lot of our homework alongside the guys from the Airwing to look at what they had to offer just behind the base there. And we found out that this area behind the Lords Bank area would work for us two-fold. While this is a private area, we had engaged the owner of the area and asked if it was that we would want to access this area that we would be able to. Should we replace the bridge, Clear the road a bit and afford our forces, both the British Forces and Belize Defense Force, the opportunity to exercise our troops in this area, launch boats, and that sort of thing? That was agreed to, and of course, all the paperwork was drafted for us to get the area prepared. But, it never came to fruition because of the pandemic. And so I was happy to hear that the engineers came in and they started on the bridge. So, I rushed out here yesterday and visited with them. And to my surprise, these guys were finished."
Staff Sergeant Martin Clarke - Rep., BATSUB Royal Engineers
"So, we were tasked to replace the existing bridge here, which was in a pretty poor state of repair. We came down at the start of last week and removed the corroded wooden metal beams. And as we were doing so, we realized the concrete was completely beyond use. So it was a bit more of a job than we had first expected. We removed all the old concrete, dug back both the Far and home banks, and then installed new concrete. So, that took a few days to do that. We then built it all back up and placed on the new bridge using some steel I-beams and then wood-timber to build the surface in the deck of the bridge, so taking about eight days total on that."
The BDF Chief of Staff tells us that the bridge will be handed over to the Chairman of Lords Bank as part of the military's joint community projects.
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