Vehicular Load Restrictions for Haulover Bridge
This next story is for commuters who use the Philip Goldson Highway, specifically the Haulover Bridge to enter and exit the city. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing has issued a public notice that, effective January ninth, there will be vehicular load restrictions for the Haulover Bridge – that vehicles over twenty-two thousand pounds in weight will no longer be allowed to cross the Haulover Bridge. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
For some time now, we have been reporting on the deteriorating conditions of several bridges within Belize City, including the Haulover Bridge. In the last thirty days, there have been reports of the bridge breaking away at different points and so, out of an abundance of caution, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is putting in place vehicular load restrictions.
Evondale Moody
Evondale Moody, Engineering Coordinator, M.I.D.H.
“Over the last thirty days, we have experienced three different failures on the existing Haulover Bridge itself and that has raised some concerns for me which I have shared with the ministry and so we have made a decision in an effort to be on the safe side for us to restrict loads that are traversing over the Haulover Bridge. We are trying to see if we could implement that vehicles having a gross weight of maximum twenty-two thousand pounds would be allowed to cross over the structure. Typically a vehicle would be nine tons per axel and so if we are looking at a triple axel vehicle that would be twenty-seven thousand tons. We have reduced that by twenty percent. The idea is that the vehicles we are having problems with are those that have in excess of three axels, the dump trucks, the beverage trucks and the other articulated vehicles – those are the ones that are creating the stress to the bridge deck itself.”
Beginning on January ninth, with the assistance of the Department of Transport, transport officers will be on site to divert traffic. This will be done for exactly one week, thereafter, violators may be ticketed.
Evondale Moody
“I’ve discussed with the chief transport officer for us to have a checkpoint at the airport junction and also one at Chetumal Street so we can divert traffic commencing next week Monday, the ninth, so that they don’t reach all the way to Haulover Bridge and then have to turn back.”
There are some exceptions being made. Engineering Coordinator for the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Evondale Moody explains.
Evondale Moody
“We are open to having passenger cars, pickup trucks, vans, smaller, lighter weight vehicles to pass through. The exception we have is the passenger buses because we know we have a lot of commuters from the north, from the Orange Walk and Corozal Districts, from right within the Lord’s Bank and Ladyville that traverses to Belize City every day and we don’t want to create a problem for passengers and so we are going to allow buses to pass through and to traverse and exit the Belize City area.”
It’s been thirteen months since the new bridge has been under construction. It’s on schedule with the completion date set for sometime around the end of this year, replacing the existing seventy-five-year-old bridge. So those heavier trucks will for the next eleven months divert through the John Smith Road.
Evondale Moody
“Thirteen months have now elapsed out of the twenty-four months and so we have approximately eleven more months to go with respect to that structure. We believe that we should complete that structure by November/December this year – at least substantially completed that we could have vehicles start to use that new structure. There may be some minor stuff that would be outstanding, like road furniture and so which we could do during that time, but we expect to have the new structure up and running by the end of this year.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
