Money is Here for Caracol Road
Belize now has some eighty million dollars to work with from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) for the Caracol Road Upgrading Project. Following approval from both chambers of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Dean Barrow and OFID’s Director General Dr. Suleiman Al-Herbish put pen to paper in Belmopan today. The first phase of the project sees just over twenty-six miles of graveled road upgraded to paved road, with five double-lane reinforced concrete bridges in place. This includes upgrades to access roads from Georgeville and Santa Elena Town as well as about four miles from the tripartite intersection, according to a government press release. The Prime Minister and his Senate Leader of Government Business, Godwin Hulse, previously spoke of the project during the New Year’s address and a Senate debate respectively.
Dean Barrow
Prime Minister Dean Barrow [File: January 3rd, 2018]
“We had thought we would need several partners to fund a project of this magnitude, which will greatly add to the overall tourism vision and open up the natural and environmental wonder of that entire area including Mountain Pine Ridge. We are therefore very thankful that OFID has come through on its own. And we think the private sector will be especially excited at the potential now for attracting tens of millions of dollars in new investments for the construction and development of lodges, villas and properties in a section of the country currently still largely untapped. There are, of course, also positive security implications for this Caracol Road project.”
Godwin Hulse
Godwin Hulse, Leader of Government Business [File: March 15th, 2018]
“The road works will be widening and upgrading the existing single-carriageway Caracol Road to an asphalt-surface road. Senator [Paul] Thompson asked whether it was asphalt, and that’s what it says here; if he has further questions, the Ministry of Works would be able to answer that. With two lanes, totaling seven-point-three meters width, and a one-point-five meter shoulder on each side, and the works include the improvement of the geometric alignment, both horizontal and vertical, and the construction of embankments; that is the details we need for the road works. The bridges – we’re constructing six reinforced concrete bridges with a single span, varying from fifteen meters to seventy meters. Bridges will be nine point two meters wide, and include two three-point-seven meter traffic lanes, with point-six meter wide shoulders on each side. Bridges will have two reinforced concrete abutments on each end, and additional works will include the improvement of the furniture, lighting and safety measures.”
Procurement of supervision consultants and construction contractors will now commence, according to the government.
