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Posted By: Marty Dismantlement of City Center 75% complete - 01/08/14 10:22 AM

The dismantlement of the Belize City Center is nearing completion, after three months of diligent work by the company assigned to take down the structure.� The project commenced at the end of September and despite the unrelenting rains, it remains on schedule.� While seventy-five percent of the work has been completed, the crew is taking its time with the removal of support beams.� According to Reina Gonzalez-Riverol, an engineer with Cisco Construction, particular attention is being paid to this part of the job since they are battling heavy winds associated with the current weather system.

Reina Gonzalez-Riverol, Engineer, Cisco Construction

Reina Gonzalez-Riverol

"As you can see we have completely brought down the extension, the red building at the back so that has been dismantled completely, one thing we haven't done yet is taken it to the Marion Jones. IT has been dismantled, it has been labeled, it is just waiting for transportation to the Marion Jones. So as you can see we are almost you can say forty-five percent finish as it entails the top section and overall we are about seventy-five percent done. As you can see the methodology we are using, we have actually opened up the center piece of the building so that Terex our crane can walk in and snatch right under the air frame so that it can hold it better and it is safer for everybody that is involved, not only for him and for the riggers that we have up there but also for the ground men that we are guiding the air frame while its coming down. So basically that is what we are doing right now, bringing down the air frames but we have definitely had a lot of setbacks before the Christmas holiday we had a lot of rain and we couldn't be working, the seal is too slippery, can’t risk my guys going up there. Now we come back and now we have this cold front with a lot of breeze that is another major setback but we are managing to work with this breeze, we are taking safety measure, we are anchoring as much of our pieces, our elements as possible so that they cannot move more than is tolerated and we may have a mishap. So we are taking enough safety measure for our guys so we can work and still stay on schedule with this strong breeze we have right now. At the beginning of the project we mentioned that we had around a hundred men working with us. But that was because we had a lot of walls that needed to be demolished, so we brought in as much crews as possible so that we can get that done fast. And obviously we provide employment for a lot of guys. However as the projects progresses we explained to the crews that we will be bringing them in periodically, because once the walls were finish then the floors came in. But we cannot demolish the floors unless we have removed the A-frame or the steel elements because the floors are helping in some way to hold everything together. That's what we are doing, as we bring down a section, enough for two or three teams they demolish the floor they walk back out so they don't work where we have movements with crane or the heavy steel. Right before our Christmas break we tried to push as hard as we could, so that we could them enough surface for them to come in break and take a bit of monies to their families for Christmas and New Year's activities."

Once completed, the Belize City Center will be rebuilt by Belize Infrastructure Limited, the development arm of the Government of Belize.

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