Over the last 24 hours, city residents have seen an increase in traffic on the north side of the city. That is because construction has begun from the approach of the Belcan Bridge near the round-a-bout all the way to the top of the bridge. It's a major inconvenience to close of one of the congested city's 3 bridges, but just a continuation of the City Council's infrastructure development project which the Council's Public Relations officer told us will be done in two phases.



Kenny Morgan - Public Relations Officer, Belize City Council
"Well it's just a continuation of the City Council's infrastructure development project and we're moving on with the works of upgrading the streets in Belize. In keeping with our policy - you know we already have the Overpass, lights all installed and ready to be energized so we've decided to move along with that section of the works. So now we're doing the approach to the Belcan bridge to the round about and all the way to the top of the bridge and on both sides but we decided to do it in two phases so as not to have a total interruption of the flow of traffic. We know that the works caused some inconveniences for our pedestrians and drivers as well as businesses in the area so we try to minimize the impact. We're doing the Belcan Bridge - the right hand approach from under the Overpass up to the appraoach to the top of the bridge and that section of the work should last about one week. Following which we will move to the other side of the farmer's market side of the Belcan Bridge approach and we'll be working on that as well. In order to minimize the inconvenience as much as we can we have traffic officers out there and they are there to ensure a smooth flow of traffic. Persons coming off the Phillip Goldon Highway can access Freetown road and then through cleghorn street through the Belchina Bridge for the alternate route for the duration of the works that are happening out there. Then we switch accross to the farmer's market side that will be a little bit trickier because we will have to divert traffic all the way from the top of Central American Boulevard and Cemetery Road - we will have to have traffic going throught the BelChina Bridge and then accessing Freetown Road to approach the Phillip Goldson Highway. We've been out there in contact with the business, with Save-U Plaza and they're being appreciative of the works and development and those working there have been understanding. We spoke to the management of San Cas Plaza, the folks at the Airline office and they are quite ammenable to the idea and they are receptive to the works that are happening."

Construction on both sides of the Belcan Bridge approach is expected to be completed in the next 2 weeks.

Channel 7