On February 20th, without great fanfare, the paving of the road from Bermudian Landing to Lemonal village was completed. The Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow had first announced that the paving would take place in his 2015 Independence Day Address, and now the hot-mix paving of the road is complete.
The road provides an easy access for tourists to visit the popular Archaeological Site at Lamanai, but it also brings great benefit to the residents of Lemonal, one of the oldest communities in the Belize River Valley area, as explained by Village Chairman Kenroy Reynolds.
“The paving of the road from Bermudan Landing to Lemonal comes as a great help to the people of Lemonal Village, because before we only had one bus that used to run on Fridays, because the road was in a deplorable condition. Since the paving of the road, we have a regular bus run; and people that used to live in Belize City and had to pay rent, can now come home and catch the bus every morning and come back in the evening from work,” Reynolds explained.
Reynolds says another significant benefit of the paving of the road that has come almost immediately is the establishment of a major new resort in the area providing employment for many villagers, particularly young people, who no longer need to travel out of the village in search of jobs.
On behalf of the villagers of Lemonal, Reynolds thanked Hon Edmond Castro and the Dean Barrow Government for the project. (Hon Castro, besides serving as Minister of Transport and National Emergency Management, is also Area Representative for Belize Rural North.) Senior villager Cyril Banner also expressed gratitude for the paving of the road, saying it makes travel to and from his hometown village a pleasant experience.
The road from Bemudian Landing to Lemonal is 7 miles long. The project to pave it began in November, 2015 and was executed by Rodla Construction Company.
