And while the MIDH has big plans for that highway - what about the road coming off the highway in Belize City? That's Cemetery Road, and as we have been reporting the area near Constitution Park is a wreck!
For weeks we've been asking who will fix it? Tonight that is slightly clearer. Moody told us they will help pay for it - but the city will find a contractor to fix it:
Jules Vasquez
"What is the plan, or is anything being discussed for that area further down from the road heading towards the Poundyard Bridge?"
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer - MIDH
"Okay. All right. So as you are aware, as a chief engineer, I'm mandated by the public roads in terms of the implementation of works within municipalities. And I'm only supposed to be focusing on the infrastructure on the main highways, excluding Central American Boulevard, which forms part of the public roads act. So I have advised the minister that we would need to get a request from City Hall for us to do any work within the city, because that would be out of my jurisdiction. And so, in discussions that that I understand our CEO had with the mayor of Belize City, I think we are contributing some funds towards those works because they're supposed to be engaging their own contractor to do those works."
Jules Vasquez
"The City Council is not known for having a strong engineering corps within its personnel. And this has historically been a problem. And we've seen it with many of the streets that that were set in concrete, you know, 5 to 8 years ago."
"Will the MIDH base the disbursement of funds or the assistance on a sound engineering plan. And I say that because this is an area under traffic stress for all the busses that enter the city, but it's also a flood prone area, that entire Poundyard area is very flood prone, which is what has led to the current breakdown."
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer - MIDH
"From my knowledge of Cemetery Road, basically what they would have to do is to scarify the existing pavement that is there. Because what has happened is that you have had a base failure because of the stresses from the vehicular traffic that utilize that road as well."
"But in addition to that, you have, as you mentioned, flooding within that area. So what has to be done is the for that section from the roundabout going into Poundyard, basically they have to start out by doing the drainage works because that is the first thing that needs to be done. If you don't do the drainage works, whatever, you put there will fail anyway."
Jules Vasquez
"It requires substantial work, substantial resources, and also some level of of engineering involvement, because it's not just wah lee road that you like down wah pavement pon."
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer - MIDH
"No,I don't I don't think so, yeah. it can't be because if you don't do that, then you would basically just be throwing away funds. Once they have to do some intense investigation to what is happening there and they have to ensure that whatever you're building will last a long time. Ideally for that area, it would be good to do concrete that area, because you have a lot of traffic passing through that area coming off the George Price Highway."
Moody says clearing the drains in that area will be critical to the permanence of any road pavement.
