AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize by District Belize District More Belize City street upgrades, less diversions

from a friend....

Been back in Belize a few days. Got a little frustrated driving in Belize City with all the street work and repaving. They are doing serious concrete on some streets. It will be nice when finished, but right some main streets are blocked off with construction, with not much signage as to where to go to get around the construction, so if you don't know the city well it can be tough to get from A to B.

Weather down south has been nice. Not as hot as it has been, though it's calm and muggy in Placencia today. Lots going on in Hopkins, not too much new -- surprisingly -- in Placencia.

Lots of tourists, some places nearly full. Don't hear people in the tourism industry complaining this year as over the past few years. The season didn't end with Easter this year -- that's for sure.

Have tried using some new GPS Belize mapping programs for my Garmin GPS. What's available is better than it used to be, but still not very useful. Many sites, hotels, restaurants, etc. either aren't on the maps or are misplaced.

Had a great meal at the "new" Chef Rob's in Hopkins the other night. He says he is consolidating his second place, Love on the Rocks (food you cook on hot lava rocks, like he started years ago at the Fort George) with his place at Parrot Cove. Driftwood Pizza still good, Thongs I finally got to see when it was open, Innie's is going great, Barracuda Grill at Beaches and Dreams seems okay.

Best meal yet at Maya Beach Bistro. Seems like it just gets better and better, and such a wonderful setting!

Comments on Battlefield Park work

OH MYYYY GOD.... WTF?? Did u just see that RETARDED plan for Albert st. & Battlefield Park???? ARE U KIDDING ME??? They are taking away the parking on 1 side that is already SCARCE to put a frigging MEDIAN!!!!??? Darryl Bradley do u ever even go downtown??? Who the hell made up this plan??? I'm sorry but...

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Well, this is somewhat right.

All the plants Moya put in are dead.

The Hindu temple cum bandstand she built in the park was smashed to rubble today by City Council equipment.

They will "take up" the street between the park and Brodies, and also the street between the park and the Belize Bank.

Antonio Soberanis and that thing that resembles Phillip Goldson have been removed and no word on whether they shall return.

I figure they will emulate the plan in San Ignacio that started off well but now all the choice parking spots are reserved for the taxis - like 60 spaces. That is 60 families worth of votes - do the math....

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The Stephen Okeke's production of Phillip Goldson bust now resides in a prominent position at the Flag Monument Roundabout - so prominent that it blocks the drivers approaching from the George Price Highway from seeing the vehicles on the Roundabout unless the driver sticks the vehicle's nose out into the outer lane of the Roundabout.

Cracks Appear On Chetumal Street

And there seems to have also been a mishap on Chetumal Bouelvard. IT was just opened on Monday, but already the concrete surface is showing significant cracking in one area. This morning when we passed, we saw workers with a jackhammer, breaking open the surface to concrete certain areas again. The City Council press officer Kenny Morgan told us that there is an area of 30 feet where cracks had occurred. He says according to the city engineer, those are expected over that distance of road, where defects will come up. He says the City Engineer has given assurances that it is nothing that will compromise the integrity of the concrete slab. But at least one engineer we've spoken with differs; he says it is a significant event because the crack will allow water to infiltrate the concrete and undermine the foundation.

We note that this contractor is the same one who did Evergreen Street behind BWSL - which had to be patched in multiple places.

Channel 7

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Numerous works from hardest working mayor causing traffic jam?

If in the past few months you've been unfortunate enough to be in a vehicle on the Northern Highway between the Haulover Bridge and the city anytime between the hours of seven am and eight thirty, then you've been a victim of the incredibly frustrating traffic congestion. It's been bad for the past months, but in recent weeks it's somehow gotten worse. In fact, odds are that if you walk from Haulover to the city, you'd probably reach faster than if you drive. It's that bad. Logic dictates that it must be connected somehow to the congestion in the city caused by blocked streets, so News Five asked Mayor Darrell Bradley for answers. He was aware of the problem, and certainly sympathetic. But he says that there's really nothing he can do about it right now.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

"We have indicated that there are battle-nets at certain portions that drive from Boom to the Center of Belize City and you have some bottle nets across the bridge. We also have previous battle neck up to where you have Chetumal Street. So we have already done the studies in terms of how the ease of course. If you extend the highway from Haulover Bridge into the City, and you widen the road, it is going to ease it and a lot of needs to be done with the area beyond the bridge. And of course that is Central government's jurisdiction. But essentially what it is is that most residence who lived in Belize City moved to Ladyville, move to Burrel Boom. And with the population centers now, there is only one access way into the city and that access way can’t be a two lane road it has to be a wider road."

Mike Rudon

"So in the short-term, there is no plan in place or no way that you can alleviated that?"

Darrell Bradley

"Well what we've tried to do was to have traffic officers out there in the morning. Residents have complained to us that there were lots of overtaking and that is what happens. We've hoped that we could divert some of the traffic now. We are going to be using Coney Drive and so we can divert some of the traffic there. That doesn't deal with the major bottle nets which are closer to where the Haulover Bridge is and beyond the bridge. But the long term solution is for the road to be done."

If you're unlucky enough to be caught anywhere by Haulover Bridge at a little past seven, driving to the city generally takes about one hour. With the Northern Highway project on indefinite hold right now, the only advice we can offer at this point is to leave home earlier.

Channel 5

Mayor Says City Hall Is Moving Forward With Streets

For the past two weeks - traffic in the City has been strangled by the closure of the Belcan Bridge - forcing traffic to funell through the two other bridges - which has been further complicated by the closure of a large portion of North Front Street.

Well, the news tonight is that it's only just begun, as the first half of the northern approach to the Belcan Bridge has been completed and work has started on the second half of that same approach.

Today Mayor Bradley told us that when that is completed, the council has already engaged private contractors to start on the round-a-bout - which is the busiest in Belize. Sounds like pure gridlock stress to us, but the Mayor was unperturbed.

Darrell Bradley - Mayor, Belize City
"Well the approach is going good, the work is being done by our City Council personnel and of course they have other commitments and so that is one of the reasons that the work is slowed a little bit. We have completely finished one side of the approach going towards Save-U and now they are on the other side and that should take two weeks and when that finishes that whole area will be opened up. Another thing that will cause inconvenience is that we've already engaged a private contractor to do the round-about itself. So when they finish the approach, they are physically going to upgrade the round-about and that was part of the Freetown Road project. We didn't do that part of it at that time because we felt that people had gotten a little bit fatigued with the closures and interruptions in traffic. We're doing that now and at this time when at least High Schools are closing, there's a lot of High Schools on Princess Margaret Drive so we won't have that traffic rush and this is part of our plan to do approaches at all bridges - we're going to do the approach to BelChina very shortly, both on the north and south side. We're going to do the intersection with Princess Margaret Drive where SJC is and we're going to the intersection at Central American Boulevard. This is just part of our infrastructure works to upgrade intersections throughout Belize City because we've been advised that the intersections are where you get a lot of potholes. The work is ongoing, we apologize for the inconvenience but when the work is finished we don't have to go back there for another 20 years."

Monica Bodden
"We notice that there has been a slight delay in the paving of King and North Front Street."

Darrell Bradley
"King Street - BWS is still on that street and when they finish their works they have to do pressure testing. A lot of times too frequently the pressure testing fails and so what they have to do even though it appears they are finished is that they have to back and find the leaks and one of the reasons we are working very closely with them in coordination is because we want to ensure that when the works are done, nobody has to go back and dig the streets for a long time. The works on North Front street was the same thing - we were given the green light on parts of the work up until the Douglas Jones intersection which has been completed. We've gone to the other side but again BWS is just signaling to us that they need to do additional work and we always allow them because we want to make sure we get this project right, we're spending public funds and we don't want to be spending monies and having to redo works very shortly within a couple years. Again it's an inconvenience - we're having a lot of the traffic slowage because some of the works we are doing right now, the approach of BelCan bridge, North Front St, New Road - these are major access ways into the city so anytime you do any of these works it will cause interruptions. We have our traffic personnel deployed to try to see if we can alleviate some of the problems and we're trying to have our people work as fast as possible giving the other commitments and priorities and we're juggling within our people and the private contractors so that we can save a little bit of cost. We're coordinating very well so that we have a good product but we apologize for the inconvenience but a lot of it can't be helped, really."

Works on the Belcan bridge approach is expected to be completed in the next 2 weeks.

Channel 7