Traffic will go one way at Barracks

As any Belize City resident will tell you, parking in the Newtown Barracks area on the weekend is nothing short of a nightmare. It’s a situation that has caught the attention of the Belize City Council and the Traffic Department. Between those two entities, it was decided that one viable solution is to turn that part of Princess Margaret Drive into a one way street. According to Deputy Mayor Darrel Carter, the programme gets underway this weekend.

Darrel Carter, Deputy Mayor, Belize City

“Come Friday at 6:00 p.m. until Monday 6:00, we’re having traffic flow one-way, which is going in this direction, from south to north all the way up to the fisheries. And if you want to come back into this loop, you will have to then access Ninth Street to go up or come back down Baymen Avenue to Calle al Mar to re-enter back into this loop.”

Janelle Chanona

“Why do something like this?”

Darrel Carter

“We have been having a series of complaints for a very long time now with this particular area. Persons who use this area will know that on the weekends you can’t just maneuver or move the way you really want to move, primarily because parking has now come right on the edge of the sidewalks over here and also on the edges of the sidewalk here, and barely two vehicles can actually pass. And so we believe that with our planning and zoning unit, and with the input from the Traffic Department, they have come up with several different suggestions. And we believe that this will be one that will alleviate the problem in this particular area in the short term and bring a sort of sense to the madness that has been happening out here on the weekends.”

Until residents get used to the idea, extra traffic officers will be posted at various points along the strip to ensure that motorists abide by the one way law. According to Carter, the Belize City Council is negotiating with the owners of the Princess Hotel and Casino to move the fence that borders their property to accommodate seventy five more vehicles along Princess Margaret Drive.