One of our major highways is receiving a much needed rehabilitation, and the 30 month, 44 million dollar project is being led by MIDH. We spoke to The Chief Engineer at MIDH Evondale Moody today about the Expansion and Rehabilitation of The Phillip Goldson Highway Mile 8 to 24.5. Jomarie Lanza reports.
If you live within the rural areas of Ladyville to Biscayne, expect a disruption in the traffic during early morning commutes into and out of the city in the evenings.
That's because road works are set to commence at the beginning of February along the Philip Goldson Highway.
The Chief Engineer at MIDH gave us more details on this major project.
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
"So the Philip Goldson Highway Upgrading project which is being upgraded by the ministry of infrastructure development and housing commences at mile 8.5 on the Philip Goldson Highway which is at the airport junction and terminates at Mile 24.5 which is in Biscayne so this overall project commenced last year in August with the procurement of contractors of which we had approximately 6 contractors that had purchased bidding documents and at the submission at the date of submission we had 4 contractors who submitted and after the completion of the evaluation you had one successful bidder which was Teichroeb and Sons limited who won the contract for 44 million dollars Belize. The project is being financed through a loan from the Cabei and also with financing from Taiwan with counterpart funding provided by the government of Belize as well. So the project basically entails the upgrading of the Phillip Goldson Highway from Mile 8 as I mentioned to 24 using hot mix asphalt cement."
The road upgrade also includes the construction of roundabouts at four of its busiest junctions. One at the airport access road, another at the Lord's bank cut off, one at Burrell Boom Junction and another leading onto the Northern Highway. Moody gave us more details.
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
"Between the airport junction and Lord's bank where I am speaking about that's approximately one mile and so we will be doing 2 miles of sidewalk side drain so that component in itself is very expensive because sidewalks are roughy running around 900 to 1000 dollars per meter for those sidewalks and also bare in mind we will be constructing four new major roundabouts and these are junctions that were never there before. We will also be doing significant widening going through the Ladyville area because the current carriage way it's only for 24 feet remember we will be building an additional 24 feet beside that inclusive of the center island so its basically a brand new construction for 2 miles within that section."
He adds that due to the duration of the project, residents must remain wary of the fact that while access will be maintained to all properties near the construction area, the flow of traffic might be slower than usual due to safety precautions.
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
"I have to indicate that they will have to expect significant delays even more than what they are having now so we also have on our team a social specialist that will be on the ground very shortly I mean later this week starting to communicate with residents and also the businesses that are on the carriage way that we will be working. Of course the other residents will be impacted by these works and so definitely they will have to probably leave earlier to go to Belize city because there will be delays during the construction period and that is one of the sections where the contractor has also indicated that he wants to commence works as well because at is optimum that we take advance of the dry season working within that area to see how best we could get those line drains within that segment before we go into the rainy season."
"And that is the message that we want to start getting across to the public within Ladyville from now because you won't be able to make that regular left hand turn that you traditionally used to make to go to Belize City you will have to go to the extent to the 2 roundabouts singularly to what we are doing in Belize city the public will complain for a few months but we will have to accept that because a number of accidents have occurred within that segment. We have the primary school there where we know people have gotten knocked down and we are trying to ensure the safety of those kids both at that primary school and Ladyville Tech. So they will have to go up to those 2 roundabouts and make that turn back to Belize City."
According to Moody this is the first major project in which hot mix will be used in the rehabilitation of this highway. He says all the other previous projects had implemented the traditional chip and seal surface dressing.
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