Why Will MIDH Leave Road Section Near Old Belize Unpaved?

A section of the George Price Highway near Old Belize may look unfinished, but engineers say it is part of a year-long test to fix a problem beneath the road. That stretch has repeatedly sunk because of unstable ground, so instead of laying asphalt and hoping for the best, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is trying a geocell system. The black platforms are designed to reinforce the road base and limit future settlement. Engineers will leave the area covered with gravel for about a year, monitor how it performs and then decide whether it is ready for paving.

 

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH

“They’re also doing some geotechnical work in terms of the improvement of the subgrade near Old Belize. That is a section that we’ve mentioned over and over that has consolidation. And so what we’re trying there is a, is what is called a geocell, whereby we’re filling some cells with material to try and minimize the consolidation process, and that is for approximately 1.2 kilometers and that is between Burton Canal and Old Belize. And then we will leave that section for it to consolidate for one year and then see how that performs. So we’re not going to pave that section at this point in time. We’re just gonna leave it with gravel material and then have traffic run over it. In that same area and vicinity, we have one bridge that we need to construct at Old Belize. There’s an existing culvert there that links the lagoon to the sea. However, that culvert is under capacity, and so we’re going to replace that with a bridge structure. And by doing that we will have to do a diversion at that location to accommodate traffic movement in both directions.”

 

The geotechnical work is part of Lot One of the George price Highway Rehabilitation Project. It includes upgrading the road infrastructure from Belize City to Hattieville and is being executed by Cisco Constructions.

 

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.

 

Watch the full newscast here: