Duck Lane Concreted and Reopened for Public Use
The Belize City Council is on a roll…on Wednesday, traffic lights were inaugurated; today, Duck Lane – a one-way street just off Albert Street was reopened. Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner says it is one of twenty-five streets that have been rehabilitated despite the COVID pandemic that put the brakes on a number of projects proposed for the city. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody with a report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
From traffic lights to concrete streets – today the Belize City Council officially reopened Duck Lane. It is the one-way street that begins at its junction with Church Street and spans some two blocks to Water Lane. It is trafficked primarily by pedestrians, but from its intersection with Orange Street, the popular dollar vans use this thoroughfare as a drop off point for its patrons; which is a block away from the commercial centre, downtown Albert Street.
Bernard Wagner
Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
“This street has been an areas where a lot of the dollar vans/community uses this area to traffic and load and unload passengers from all over the south side part of the city. It has been in a deplorable condition for years. Again we are about the people and we felt compel to ensure that we can pave this street, cement it so that it is easily accessible and it gives a smooth ride for those pedestrians trafficking along with the dollar vans. So it is essentially quality of life, safety of residents, smoother ride; this is all in what we perceive this project to be.”
The street is concrete and its design takes into account flood mitigation. Its value is within the range of forty to fifty thousand dollars and is a part of the council’s programme to fix as many streets as it possibly can. Mayor Bernard Wagner says that since taking office, the council has refurbished some twenty-five streets, despite the economic strains brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bernard Wagner
“Very fairly done work, it was done pretty quickly and if you notice it runs on an incline so that the water runs on one side and then it connects to the drain on Church Street and Orange Street. So we shouldn’t expect any flooding in this area because the street was built on an incline.”
….and there are other works in the pipeline.
Bernard Wagner
“As you know, we had been saying in the media for some time that we will do a number of streets. It has been slowed down significantly due to COVID-19, but we have never stopped doing streets. We have done over twenty-five streets and we continue to do streets. You see the Yabra, you see the Tigris Street; you see Raccoon, Nursey—all of those streets have been rehabilitated. We want to do this street along this stretch of Church Street behind Publics—horrible condition. It has been there for years. Nobody spoke about it; we are a council and we take it as it comes. We know that that street there will be commencing very shortly. We have many other streets on the pipeline – Manatee Drive; that is starting right now.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
