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Coastal Road Upgrade 60% Complete

Over a hundred million dollars is being invested to upgrade the Coastal Road, also referred to as the Coastal Highway. With construction works well underway, the upgrade is sixty percent complete. But already there are discussions between various ministries to ensure road safety, from security, education and enforcement standpoints. Capacity building among the enforcement units is already in place so that when the road officially opens in the months ahead, it would be smooth driving. News Five's Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The coastal road has for years been used to access the remote village of Gales Point Manatee in the Belize Rural Central area of the Belize District.  While it wasn't ideal for smaller vehicles to traverse, it is an alternative route to access southern Belize, cutting down travelling time drastically. Now for almost two years, since February 2020 when ground was officially broken, road works have been ongoing to upgrade the Coastal Highway. About sixty percent has been completed with bridges installed - the majority asphalted with bus sheds and speed bumps set in place.

Peter Williams, Operations Officer, Department of Transport

"The Ministry of Infrastructure Development will be putting in the necessary road furniture, as we refer to them; the reflectors on the road, the markings, the signs, the crash barriers - all of that will be a component on this highway to increase the safety of the highway."

From a policing standpoint, it is no secret that several illegal drug plane landings have taken place on the Coastal Road. But then in recent times, traffic fatalities have been on a rise. So the police will be teaming up with the Department of Transport to maintain a presence along the thirty-six-mile stretch.

ASP Jerome Steven, National Traffic Commander, Belize Police Department

"As soon as this road is completed, we will be out here with the highway patrol. We will be patrolling within the areas so as to keep the traffic from speeding. We will be mounting various checkpoints within the area at different locations so that we can assist in having this area a more safer place to slow down vehicles so as not to cause so much fatalities. As we know, recently we have a spoke in fatalities all over, countrywide so we will be put in that into place. We'll have to have our presence on this road 24/7. It is going to be shared between Dangriga and the rural area of Hattieville. As you know there is a substation in Mahogany Heights, so they will also be making frequent checks within this jurisdiction."

The project is expected to be completed in 2022 and when that happens, a multisectoral approach will be undertaken to ensure that the integrity of the road is not only maintained, but that road rules are enforced.

Peter Williams

"The two main contributing factors to road traffic collisions are driver behaviour and enforcement. So when this highway is completed, we want to be able to tap into ways on how we can cure the malpractices of drivers and the primary way that we can do this is through our education system. Currently, road safety is now a part of the school curriculum."

Sylvian Neal, Office Administrator, Second Road Safety Project

"The second road safety project was a part of the government's way of responding to the road safety issues that we have in the country. What we want to tell the public is that the road is always a shared responsibility. I drive for you and you drive for me, but we also have to take everybody into account, even the pedestrians. We are dealing a lot with the softer intervention when it comes to the role of the project and a part of our intervention is awareness - education and awareness. We try to put out a lot of these commercials that try to tell people the proper way to do things."

Operations Officer at the Department of Transport, Peter Williams says that there is a review of driving manual and driving test. The capacity of the department will also be enhanced with the use of technology.

Peter Williams

"We are looking at introducing a new driving manual, we are looking at upgrading the driving license test and so on, so that we can begin to put this information to the public so that they can understand what the rules of the roads are. We do have the TruCAM speed guns which are the top speed guns in the market right now. It is very user-friendly and has advanced technology. These devices will be used; we are waiting for the training from the manufacturers the same way with the breathalyzers we went to the manufacturing company and we got that master level training, we are going to do something similar with the speed guns. And once we have gotten that training, our officers will be deployed with the use of those devices. Currently, there is this misconception that there is no law that governs the use of the speed guns or the breathalyzer and I want to state categorically that that is not true; that is a fallacy. We do have the necessary legislation in place to proceed with that. In fact, we have had several convictions before primarily with the use of breathalyzers. So yes when this highway is completed - and not just this highway, but all our highways - we will be utilizing those devices."

Similar road furniture and enforcement measures will be implemented on the Chan Chen and Sarteneja Roads that are also being upgraded in Corozal at this time.

Channel 5

This morning, CDB President Dr. Gene Leon, accompanied by his delegation, Government of Belize representatives and engineers, conducted an inspection of the ongoing works on the Coastal Road. The group stopped at various locations including the newly constructed Manatee Bridge and the Gales Point Manatee junction. The project is partially funded by a BZ$68 million grant from the Government of the United Kingdom through the CDB-administered United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Fund and a BZ$73.2 million loan from CDB. The proposed upgrade includes the construction and paving of the 36 miles of road and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of 10 bridges across various creeks and rivers along the highway.

One More Year to Go with Upgrade of Coastal Road

The upgrade of the Coastal Highway has been a little tricky. Also inherited from the previous administration, works are approximately seventy percent done. It is estimated to be fully completed within a year's time, as the government is trying to ensure that the road is not prone to flooding.

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development

"The coastal highway, again an inherited project by us. That's a difficult one though cause that one is in a real flood zone. Even with the U.K. government, when we came in, there were complaints that the sizes of the culverts were not adequate for the animals to pass. And we sat with the U.K. government, we sat with all the environmentalists and we made some structural changes to the culverts so that they can follow the specifications that were recommended. That financing we did it on our own. The supervisors are the same from here, Politecnica. The contractor is different; the supervisors from the Ministry of Works is still the project execution unit. The update report that I have received, they are on schedule. They had a couple set back when we had some of the flooding, they had a couple set back during COVID  but they have made up the time and they are on schedule."

Duane Moody

"So set to complete when?"

Julius Espat

"About a year is left."

Channel 5

Road construction to Chiquibul and Caracol Archaeological Reserve🌿 is underway. This new development will bring challenges and preparations must be ensued to curtail the impacts. We expect that the construction company will follow the Environmental Compliance Plan which is aimed at reducing impacts on the delicate and sensitive environment

Caracol Road On Its Way To Opening

And the next mega-project that the MIDH is working on is the Caracol Road in the Cayo District - a long winding road to the iconic Maya Temple. And though that project is still in progress, today Minister Espat says they may soon need to do a soft opening. Here's what he told us.

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure
"We were planning to wait for the entire road to be completed to do an opening. But I am recommending to the staff that we do a soft opening because the San Antonio area is open already. Up to Pinol is completed. And so I am I am thinking that this area will do an opening for that section and then wait for the second section to finished and be completed to do a final opening."

"That's a wow. That's another beautiful area. This road to me and I have you've heard me in the past. I criticize more the Caracol on this one. Why? Not because of the engineering of it. But this road has serious economic benefits and it helps communities. The the Caracol Road that goes to San Antonio and Georgeville I also was one of them that I agreed with that part."

"But the part that leads from Pinole all the way to Caracol, I would have loved that road to be George Price highway or something else where we use it on an everyday basis. It was just a matter of priority. But again, it's there. Contracts have been drawn. We had to be responsible and completed."

Channel 7