Of course one of the most pressing apart from the restoration of homes and communities is the infrastructure. One bridge has had a spectacular washout and there are other areas of collapse on the Hummingbird Highway. CEO in the Ministry of Works Cadet Henderson discussed the hotspots today and said the CDB may provide funding for a new Kendall Bridge.
Cadet Henderson, CEO – Ministry of Works
“The Minister and I will be having a meeting 10:30 tomorrow with two senior gentlemen from the Caribbean Development Bank. They are presently having meetings today in Belize City with BWSL but we’ll pursue further discussions. In fact we’ve already had several communications with CDB where we’ve had indications from them that they are prepared to support us firstly with a US$500,000 emergency fund which is applicable retroactively as well as for post account operations so whatever interventions we are doing right now as emergency replenishments of erosions, infrastructure damages will be accommodated under this. Thereafter agreements should be established for the complete replacement of the structure. This is just one option but we are still looking at others.
In terms of the Mullins River Bridge, again this was a two span bridge. That bridge had a center pier that was obviously overwhelmed. It is pile structure, unlike the Kendall Bridge. That structure is still under water. That bridge was built in 1988 by the US Military after a previous identical construction was built by the US military that last only 1 year before it collapsed. The structure there is a retired railway bridge system, a very formidable structure, I am referring to the bridge thrust itself, the structural support is what was vulnerable and such gave way. That bridge is 140 feet span with a navigable clearance of 35 feet and was a single lane, 14 feet, very prohibitive in width such that there was a permanent ford or a crossing in the river bed immediately beside the bridge, down stream of it, there were certain categories of equipments such as crane and the like that were unable to pass through this bridge so they had to use the lower crossing. Our short term proposal again is to wait the recede of flooding, to upgrade the adjacent downstream low embankment ford crossing so that it can be used for all categories of vehicles, to install a small bridge span as necessary on the ford. Our medium term action there is not necessary since this area has left traffic and as it is the ford that exists requires very little to be upgraded for use by other categories of vehicles.”
