Regent Street Closes to Vehicular Traffic

Relocating to Market Square will also inconvenience motorists in the downtown area for the next two weeks, beginning on August twenty-fifth.  The Belize City Council has announced that as of this Sunday, the stretch of road from Belize Bank to the foot of the Swing Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic.  That’s because there will be necessary road works carried out in front of the new Commercial Center.  According to Minto, motorists will be asked to divert at the corners of Regent and Bishop Streets for those wanting to travel over to the north side of the Old Capital.  Admittedly, the timing at the beginning of the new school year is most inconvenient.

Tamara Minto

Tamara Minto, Communications Manager, Belize City Council

“We’re going to close from the end of the Belize Bank on Regent Street to the Swing Bridge.  That will be closed until September sixth due to street repairs.”

Isani Cayetano

“Now the first thing motorists would say is, this will cause a definite inconvenience for people wanting to travel northbound.  How do you plan or does the city council plan to alleviate the bottleneck that will be caused out here?”

Tamara Minto

“We know that this is not an ideal time.  We know that we have back to school, we have the court, however, it’s the only stretch of Regent Street that looks and is in the state that it’s in.  So there had to be some time that we closed and coming in we decided that this was actually the only time we had [that we were] able to close.  Traffic will be diverted down Bishop Street so if you’re coming north on Regent Street, we are suggesting that everyone diverts down to Bishop Street using the canal.  For those, all city buses coming in the downtown area and coming to their depot on the West Canal, we ask that they use the East Canal.  So if you don’t necessarily have to do business down here, we’re just asking that you make different arrangements to detour just for the small inconvenience.”