The Government of Belize has signed a contract for the Haulover Bridge Replacement Project with M&M Engineering Consultants Ltd., in the amount of BZ$30,990,991.49. Works are scheduled to commence immediately with a duration of 24 months. The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Infrastructure Development & Housing - Project Execution Unit, while Politecnica Ingegneria ed Achitettura S.C bridge specialist consultants of Italy will provide technical and administrative supervision.
Background
The Government of Belize secured a BZ$24 million loan in October 2017 from the OPEC Fund for International Development, toward a budgeted BZ$30 million, for the replacement of the Haulover Bridge in the Belize District.
The structure to replace the Haulover Bridge was designed according to modern standards to be a single span, structural steel arch, supported on bored piles. Procurement of a construction contractor for the new bridge commenced in August 2018 and located two qualified contractors; only one submitted a bid in September 2019 after a prolonged period of clarifications. At BZ$59.4 million, that bid was BZ$18 million over-budget and negotiations to reduce the figure failed.
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development & Housing, after a detailed review of the project and in support of the bridge as a vital component of Belize's national infrastructure, commenced the procurement of a construction contractor in March 2021. A pre-qualification exercise ensured interested contractors were qualified to continue with the bidding process and submit offers. The deadline for the submission of bids was July 5, 2021, after which the ministry and specialist consultants, selected to assist with the evaluation of bids, performed reviews and gave their recommendation of contract award.
Technical Details
The Haulover Bridge Replacement Project will install a new multiple-span reinforced concrete structure designed to AASHTO Standards, immediately downstream of the existing Haulover Bridge. The new structure was designed to have two approach spans of 43.025 meters and a center span of 42.5 meters, totaling 128.55 meters. Seven Florida Type 72 Bulb Tee girders support each span providing an overall bridge deck width of 14.9 meters. The new structure accommodates two lanes of traffic including 1.5-meter-wide shoulders and dedicated pedestrian sidewalks on both sides. A rigid AASHTO Type 732 concrete barrier separates vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The reinforced concrete deck with pre-cast/pre-stressed elements are founded on reinforced concrete center piers and abutments and driven piles.
Two elevated reinforced concrete approaches of five 30-meter spans, comprising of seven pre-cast/pre-stressed AASHTO Type 4 beams will create a gradual approach from ground level to the bridge deck, which is 6.5 meters above mean sea level, providing 4.5 meters of freeboard and making the entire bridge a climate-resilient structure. Additional improvements include the addition of modern safety features including high-visibility signs, lighting, painted lane markings, and safety rails as needed.
Haulover Bridge: Modern Upgrade for a Historic Crossing
It seems like it has been there forever, and was destined to stay put for decades more, but now the Haulover Bridge on the outskirts of Belize City is getting more than just some retrofitting and repair. The old bridge built in 1949, will be taken down and a new three-span bridge will welcome commuters and visitors alike. Tonight Marion Ali reports on a thirty-million-dollar project and what the new structure will feature. She also takes a little detour down memory lane with a driver who survived a head-on collision on the bridge years ago.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Over the next twenty-four months, the location where the bridge stands will be busy with construction activity on the new bridge, whose specifications are unique for that location.
Roque Matus, Director, M&M Engineering
"The Haulover is a very wide river, right. So the bridge has actually three components: it has the main bridge across the river and there are actually two other bridges that are going to be on the land. The reason we're doing that is because the soil is very poor, right? And if we would just fill an embankment twenty, twenty-five feet up in the sky, it would settle tremendously. So the whole approach to the bridge is actually another bridge, similar to what is done when you're going in Mexico."
On the Phone: Lennox Bradley, Chief Engineer, MIDH
"This new replacement bridge will be approximately the same length - just a bit over four hundred and twenty-two feet, but it will be about around twenty-two feet above normal water level, compared to the ten feet that it is right now. So the new bridge will be higher, it will be wider - it will be roughly about forty-eight to forty-nine feet wide, compared to the twenty feet that we have right now. So congestion will not be so much of a problem."
Over the years, increased traffic and larger vehicles sometimes resulted in problems on the narrow approaches of the bridge. In 1989, businessman Mike Heusner walked away from a serious head-on crash.
Mike Heusner, Survived Haulover Wreck
"Just before I got to this end of the bridge, I saw a big truck coming up the highway approaching the bridge, and it looked like it was very big and it was coming very fast. So, I hit the brakes and stopped and as it came up the bridge, it looked like its left front wheel and the bumper were only about a foot or so away from a big cement pillar that used to be at the corner of the bridge. The truck cleared the pillar and it came straight at me and it hit the front end of my car, pushed my car into the upper structure of the high beams on the bridge. A big upright high beam on the bridge came through the trunk of my car, through the back seat and ended up just a few inches behind my head."
Strangely, Heusner's grandfather, Dr. Karl Heusner, almost died at almost the same spot back in the early 1900s.
Mike Heusner
"When Dr. Heusner got the first car, he took it out for a trial run on the Northern road, which at the time was just a cart road. No highway was built yet. He came out the Northern road to the Haulover ferry and when he got on the ferry, he made a mistake and instead of stepping on the brake pedal, he stepped on the gas and the car plunged into the river. I think it was about twenty - twenty-four feet deep at that time. His mechanic was Bruce Betson. Mr. Betson swam to the surface and he got up, looked around (repeating) the doctor wasn't there, so he dived back down to the car and forced the door open and pulled him out. He saved his life."
Chief Engineer with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Lennox Bradley says the latest design was not their original choice for that location, but a limited budget forced them to revisit their options.
On the Phone: Lennox Bradley
"We wanted an anchor bridge - a landmark that would send a strong message to tourists coming from the airport and visiting Belize. It was designed by a foreign engineering firm, Polytechnica, and it costs about fifty-nine point four million Belize dollars, and it was well above the budget that we had for the bridge. And so we had no choice but to go back and redesign. So we had a foreign firm designing the first bridge and then a local firm reviewing the design and coming up with a lower cost design that is satisfactory and satisfies the objectives of the loan agreement and the needs of the country."
Roque Matus
"It's called a girder bridge, which means we drive piles, we build the abutments and piers, which are the big posts in layman terms and the big beams and then from each of those set of columns, we are spanning with pre-stressed beams."
The engineers admit that even the best of structures can become vulnerable when nature's fury bears down, such as what happened to the Kendall Bridge.
Lennox Bradley
"You are quite right that the Belize River under flood conditions could be a bit worrying, but it's for that very reason that we have designed the new replacement at the height that we are designing it. And of course we had to look at the hydrology and the hydraulics of the area, including the velocity of the water in the Belize River at that point."
But while the Belize River can be perilous in a hurricane, Roque Matus, who is the Director for the Contractor, M&M Engineering Company, says that with the best engineering and a prayer for good measure, the bridge should last.
Roque Matus
"We did all the calculations. We ran the analysis through many modules. After we did our proposal, the Government sent it outside to an Italian firm to check all our proposals designs so - like I tell all my friends and so forth - I say we do our very best in engineering and then we pray to God."
Marion Ali for News Five.
The loan agreement with the OPEC Fund for International Development was for twenty-four million dollars, with the government meeting the remaining balance of around six million to cover the cost of the new bridge. The contractor is M&M Engineering Company, which also constructed the new bridge at Roaring Creek. Minister of Infrastructure Development Julius Espat has indicated that a portion of the current bridge will be relocated temporarily to the Cayo District for use until a new bridge is built in that part of the country.
If you commute to the city via the Philip Goldson Highway, you would also observe that land has been cleared on one side of the Haulover Bridge. It is the location where a newly designed bridge will be erected in 2022. The process is well underway, and the bridge will cost about thirty million dollars when completed. Chief Engineer, Lennox Bradley, gave News Five an update on the status of that project.
Lennox Bradley, Chief Engineer
"A bulk of the bridge system that we have there will be composed of concrete precast members so a lot of work is happening off the site right now, but work is ongoing. Right now they have started to clear the actual location where the bridge ought to go and the precast members that are required are being built off the site and I think when those reach a certain point, then you will see some more activity on the ground. But having precast members really expedite the completion of a bridge structure; it reduces cost and it expedites. Like what we mentioned, we brought down the design from fifty-nine million [dollars] to around thirty million [dollars]. It is quite a substantial saving using locally available material and expertise."
Work is about to commence on the new Haulover Bridge, a project of which we at the MIDH are immensely proud considering we managed to save $30M while providing a stronger, wider, better designed bridge. Boaters using the river in that area in the coming weeks are asked to exercise care as foundation piles will be driven and reinforced concrete piers will be built. Its a big move for the MIDH and a bigger benefit for the people of Belize.
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing through its construction contractor for the Haulover Bridge Replacement Project, M&M Engineering Consultants Ltd., informs the public that two permanent mid-river foundation piers will be constructed in the Belize River at a location just downstream of the existing bridge.
Multiple heavy lifting barges will be used as platforms for heavy equipment used in the driving of piles and the construction of the reinforced concrete piers. Commencing on January 15, 2022, the barges will be in the river executing the works. They will be mostly stationary but at times there may be movement while ferrying materials, equipment and personnel.
"No wake" signs will be erected to caution boaters to go slow when approaching the Haulover Bridge from both sides.
The ministry thanks the public for its cooperation in respecting and abiding by these safety precautions and exercising due attention and care when navigating through the worksite.
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development & Housing, through its construction contractor for the Haulover Bridge Replacement Project, M&M Engineering Consultants Ltd., informs the public that six extremely heavy, 100-foot-long bridge beams will be transported along the Philip Goldson Highway from Ladyville to the southern approach of the Haulover Bridge throughout the day on Sunday, July 10, 2022.
The public is advised to be vigilant and exercise extreme caution when approaching the heavy equipment transporting these reinforced concrete beams. Drivers are asked to always follow traffic warnings and the instructions of escorts as these beams may take up the entire width of the highway and the existing Haulover Bridge.
The ministry thanks the public for their kind cooperation in abiding by these safety precautions and by exercising due care and attention when encountering these extraordinary loads on the highway.
Haulover Replacement Bridge Project Remains on Schedule, within Budget
Several months into the construction of a new crossing to replace the existing Haulover Bridge, work remains on schedule and the spending remains within budget. Today, Engineering Coordinator at the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Evondale Moody explained to News Five that the work should be finished within the twenty-four-month timeline.
Evondale Moody, Engineering Coordinator, MIDH
"The project commenced in October, 2021 and we have a twenty-four-month duration to complete that structure. So far we are approximately about nine months into the construction of the new bridge, for which we have utilized approximately twenty-four percent of the funding for the project. And we are about thirty-seven percent of the duration completed to date. We have made significant progress since we began. On the south side, which is coming from Belize City, we have a retaining wall that we were supposed to build, which is approximately sixty meters in length. We have completed that as well. We haven't had a significant impact on traffic, the reason being that the new structure is off alignment. So we're still utilizing the old structure and the old alignment, so it hasn't impacted us that much. Where we will be impacted is when we're tying in the new alignment to the existing road, which will happen at two points, one on the south and one on the north. But we don't expect that to occur until possibly later next year. The only traffic issue we have, which we're trying to deal with as we go along by putting out notices and so forth is the transportation of the bridge girders, which takes some time and takes up the entire Haulover Bridge once we're crossing those girders to the south side. We've gone through that once two weeks ago with the transportation of six girders and we will go through that again this coming Sunday, the seventh, where we will be installing another six girders."
The Ministry of Infrastructure Development & Housing, through its construction contractor for the Haulover Bridge Replacement Project, M&M Engineering Consultants Ltd., informs the public that six extremely heavy, 100-foot-long bridge beams will be transported along the Philip Goldson Highway from Ladyville to the southern approach of the Haulover Bridge throughout the day from September 18 to 20, 2022.
The public is advised to be vigilant and exercise extreme caution when approaching the heavy equipment transporting these reinforced concrete beams. Drivers are asked to always follow traffic warnings and the instructions of escorts as these beams may take up the entire width of the highway and the existing Haulover Bridge.
The ministry thanks the public for their kind cooperation in abiding by these safety precautions and by exercising due care and attention when encountering these extraordinary loads on the highway.
Haulover Bridge Replacement Project Less Than a Year from Completion
The Haulover Bridge Replacement Project is thirteen months into construction. The project is expected to be completed by October 2023. The cost of the new bridge is just under forty million dollars. A portion of the works is being funded through a loan from the OPEC Fund. The Government of Belize committed to providing the remainder of the funds. And, if you have traversed the area lately you would have noticed that the approaches to the bridge on both ends are well underway. Evondale Moody told us more.
"As you can see, while traversing that area, we have commenced with the approach to the Haulover Bridge itself. Basically the bridge is a one hundred and twenty nine meter span over the Haulover Creek. It also has two approaches on the north and south side that is a hundred and fifty meters in span. In total the bridge will be four hundred and twenty-eight meters long. Reason being, we have those approach on the north and south side is because the area we have there is significantly embedded with peat material which is approximately about forty to forty five feet deep. So, if we build a traditional approach ramp definitely we would have sediments on the approach to the bridge. So, we decided to change the design and have an elevated approach to both sides because you could see on the Phillip Goldson Highway and Benny's roundabout itself we have been experiencing some settlement n the road pavement. So, that is in an effort to improve that design. It is very expensive but it is something we believe because the bridge has a life span of seventy-five to a hundred years that we construct a proper approach to the structure."
Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño today led a delegation on site visits to infrastructure works being done in the Belize District. One stop on the Prime Minister's agenda was at the site of the Haulover Bridge Replacement Project where he met with the engineers and construction team. The new, state-of-the-art two-lane bridge will replace the current structure which has outlived its time, and is slated for completion this year.
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