No More Blame Game: MIDH Plans Road Handover to City Council

For years, whenever potholes got deeper and major streets in Belize City started falling apart, the blame game kicked in. City Hall pointed to central government, central government pointed somewhere else, and residents were left asking who’s actually in charge of fixing these roads? Well, tonight, that long-running tug‑of‑war may finally be coming to an end. With the massive infrastructure push now underway, from the Swing Bridge replacement to the new BelCan Bridge and upgrades along both major highways, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is preparing to hand over responsibility for several key stretches of roadway to the Belize City Council. Chief Engineer Evondale Moody says the ministry has already written the mayor proposing the transfer of areas near Faber’s Road and Chetumal Street. The council has agreed, but only after MIDH completes the major upgrades scheduled over the next three years. Here’s Moody explaining the current jurisdiction and how that handover is expected to unfold.

 

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer

“As the chief engineer, I am responsible for all the highways and going through the city. I am also responsible for Central American Boulevard. However, the highway terminates at the intersection of Phillip Goldson Highway with Central American Boulevard, which is at Save-U Roundabout and the highway ends at the leaf roundabout with the George Price Highway. “Yes, I had written to the mayor I think a year ago or two years ago, whereby the MIDH was proposing that we hand over jurisdiction of a section of the highway from Fabers Road to Central American Boulevard and also from Chetumal Street near Westrac to Save-U. I have received a response from him whereby the council has agreed to adopt those two sections, including Central American Boulevard but only after we have completed the upgrading works on those highways. And so I believe that since these upgrades will go into the next three years, more than likely that is when that MOU will be signed whereby I could hand over jurisdiction of that section. And then my highway will now go through lake I Boulevard or Chetumal Street, back onto the highways.”

 

MIDH Reinforces Alternate Routes Ahead of Belize City Bridge Upgrades

 

Belize City is gearing up for one of its biggest infrastructure shakeups in decades, with major bridge replacements and highway upgrades set to reshape traffic across the old capital. As crews prepare to reinforce key corridors like Chetumal Street and Lake Independence Boulevard, routes expected to carry the overflow during months of construction, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is also moving to settle a long‑standing issue: who’s responsible for maintaining some of the city’s busiest roads. Tonight, MIDH confirms it has begun the process of handing over certain stretches, including areas near Faber’s Road and Chetumal Street, to the Belize City Council once the current round of upgrades is complete. Chief Engineer Evondale Moody explains how the ministry plans to strengthen those alternate routes now, while laying the groundwork for a full jurisdictional transition in the years ahead.

 

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer

“With these works that we will be undertaken, we will put a lot of strain on Chetumal Street because of the bridge and also on BelChina. What the ministry has done in an effort to alleviate that is that we have started some works on Chetumal Street Boulevard, where we want to rehabilitate it as best as we can. We really don’t want to go into a fully permanent solution as yet because the underlying ground condition is still consolidating. And if we do anything at this point in time, we may still lose what we’re doing. And so that’s why we want to just keep it with the flexible pavement. We will go back in and top it up if we need to, but we don’t want to go and do a full hot mix pavements there at this point in time. We want to give it some more time for it to consolidate. We have on the Chetumal Street side near Westrac, there’s a couple locations that we have identified where the concrete pavement has failed. There are two sections there that I have asked my team to go in and repair. So even though it’s not under my mandate because of the inconvenience that we will be providing or creating in the city. The MIDH will undertake those works on Chetumal Street. There’s also a street that comes off BelChina, I think it’s called Johnson Street. We will try our best to see how best we could accommodate in doing some works there as well to alleviate traffic in the city.”

 

As major bridge and highway projects ramp up across the city, engineers say they’re already reinforcing key alternative routes to ease the traffic strain headed our way.

 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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