A Temporary Fix to Warping Highway Leading to Haulover Bridge

If you are travelling into Belize City via the Philip Goldson Highway, you would have noticed that there are diversions between the roundabout at Benny’s Apartments compound and the Haulover Bridge, as roadwork is underway. Minister Julius Espat shares comments about the temporary fix to the perennial warping of the highway.

Julius Espat

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development & Housing

“Haulover is on schedule. By the ending of this year, it should be completed. I would give it maybe sometime in January, but it should be completed in December. The rehabilitation of the approach from Benny’s to there is a temporary fix – I just want people to be aware. That project needs a causeway, so we have to pile from the roundabout. We are piling the roundabout right now so that will be in preparation for the full project, but that is an expensive proposal to pile from that roundabout to Haulover, but it has to be done. And so what we are doing right now is temporary. I wouldn’t call it a band-aid; it is what has been done before, but a little more compaction and it should last us maybe three to four years until we get the financing for the full project and then that will be complete. A causeway doesn’t mean it is elevated high up. It just means that the foundation will come from the bedrock, built on piles and so it will be able to withstand its own weight without having to depend on the resistance of the ground. That area is hundreds – it varies on who you speak to – hundreds of feet of peat throughout the years. It’s just organic material that rots and constant. It is a problem. Some people say there is a stream, but it doesn’t really matter. What happens is that you can’t depend on the ground to give you the resistance necessary to put the road.”