New Haulover Bridge Open to Vehicles; Pedestrians, Not Yet
For the first time since it has been constructed, vehicles were able to cross the new Haulover Bridge near mile five on the Philip Goldson Highway. Today, Ministry of Infrastructure Development officials walked over the bridge to inspect the almost complete structure and we took that opportunity to ask them about it during a soft opening. News Five’s Marion Ali was there this morning to speak with ministry officials about the new structure and the scope of work that is still left to finish. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It has been under construction for the past two years and today, vehicles were able to cross over the new Haulover Bridge near mile five on the Philip Goldson Highway. While most of the work is completed on the new bridge, Chief Engineer Evondale Moody explained that there is still some work left to complete.
Evondale Moody
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
“We’re doing basically a soft opening of the new Haulover Bridge. This is being done in an effort for us to get traffic onto the new structure because of the old alignment we have to tie into the existing road. And so at that intersection is where we will have a high elevation, and so we need to close off the whole approach so that traffic could be transferred to the new bridge. The idea is to have that done by the first or second week in March. Once we could complete all the aspects of the new structure, which includes the additional rails that we have pending and some tie-ins that we have to do for the utility companies, then we would consider the bridge to be 100 percent complete.”
The new bridge is designed to last several decades, Moody says, as its capacity is intended to withstand.
Evondale Moody
“With the integrity of the structure, we definitely believe that it will be able to sustain natural disasters. It’s also designed to contain basically a category five hurricane. So that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s not a steel structure that would be susceptible to wind damages and so forth. And also the substructure that we have is designed for earthquake as well. So this should be a structure that should last us, with maintenance, at least a hundred years. The bridge structure is designed to Ashton 93 – an HL 93, sorry. And so that is designed to carry a substantial amount of weight. So that shouldn’t be an issue in terms of the stability of the structure.”
And while the bridge, constructed at a cost of around thirty million Belize dollars, is expected to meet the growing demands of a rapidly expanding city and traffic heading north, the Minister of Infrastructure Development, Julius Espat says he has more reasons than one to feel proud of the project.
Julius Espat
Julius Espat, Minister, MIDH
“This is the first bridge that was designed by a Belizean, built by a Belizean, supervised by a Belizean. How can you not be proud of a situation like this? And you all are seeing it. It’s an awesome experience to be here. It’s a Belizean initiated project. It’s not red or blue, and I have stood by that from the day I was elected and from the day I was given the opportunity to be the minister. We represent all peoples: red, blue, mauve, pink, people of all colors.”
Espat explained that the completion and opening of the bridge at this time was not designed to coincide with the upcoming municipal elections because it was scheduled to be completed around this time. The bridge is scheduled to be officially opened in the latter part of March, when all the electricity connections and other fixtures are in place. Marion Ali for News Five
The old Haulover Bridge, meanwhile, has not seen its last days as yet. It will be used somewhere in the Cayo District, using the same contractor that built the Haulover Bridge, M and M Engineering.
