The past three months of consistent rain has put a battering on the infrastructure of the entire country and the Government of Belize is responding to the massive damages that has beset the roads. Prime Minister Dean Barrow held a press conference on Wednesday November 27th where he explained that the roadway problems will be addressed firstly in a remedial manner and thereafter in a comprehensive national multi-million dollar approach.
P.M. Barrow announced that immediately 2.269 Million dollars will be made available to the ministry of works which will see remedial road works in all municipalities with the first tranche of over 96 thousand dollars already being made available. Corozal will receive $494,216.25 dollars; Orange Walk $184,356; Belize District over $442,295; the Cayo district will receive 1.1 Million dollars; Stann Creek will get $87,795 and the Toledo district will receive $59,160.
While that is the planned spending to offer some respite for road users, a greater more holistic and comprehensive look at the infrastructure across the country will see Central Government investing $76.72 Million dollars on the major highways as well as the Old Northern Highway and village roads . These monies are currently available for infrastructure development through the Petro-Caribe Initiative.
According to the Prime Minister, the investment will be made as follows: the Phillip Goldson Highway will see $16.73M in upgrades; the George Price Highway will get $5.3M; the Old Northern Highway will receive 1.7M. Investments will also be done on village roads as follows: $6.34M in Cayo; $10.95M in the Belize District; $8.63 in the Stann Creek district; $15.61 in the Toledo district; $2.92 in Orange Walk; and $10.25 in the Corozal district. The Prime Minister described the plan as one that was “muscular, a plan on steroids.”
As for the City, where Mayor Darrell Bradley has been performing in a stellar fashion, the PM explained that central government will pick up the tab for paving the Partridge Street Area, the roundabout at the flag monument, the intersection at Mahogany Street, Princess Margaret Drive from the intersection with West Landivar up to the Marion Jones Stadium, the completion of both Baymen Avenue and Newtown Barracks. Additionally central government will fund a $2.5M drainage program that will impact 21 streets across the city. Orange Walk will also see the highway repaired in excess of $2M along with the San Antonio road being fixed to the tune of over $500,000. Work will also be carried out in Corozal, San Ignacio and Santa Elena, Benque, and Belmopan. Dangriga and Punta Gorda will also be done but the work will be done by the Ministry of Works.
In infrastructure, the Prime Minister explained that government is prepared to spend on improving sugar roads providing that there is a crop. He added that he needs to be assured that there will be a crop or those monies would be allocated to other areas of greater priority.
All in all it is an expansive and all inclusive bout of spending which will see immediate work being carried out across the country to alleviate the current problems. Chief Engineer, Lennox Bradley stated that the comprehensive work on the greater improvement of infrastructure will be done within a 3 year span.
