Two major road contracts were signed today in Belmopan. They will benefit the Western and Hummingbird highways. On the Western, there will be major upgrading of signage and reflectors, while on the Hummingbird, 7 miles of intolerably bad roads will be re surfaced.
CEO in the Ministry of Economic Development, Yvonne Hyde explained to the Government Press Office:..
Yvonne Hyde, CEO - Ministry of Economic Development
"The first contract that we signed is geared towards to the provision "furniture," putting up signs, marking the road, putting in mile posts and ensuring that the road in terms of the laws is properly put together."
Reporter
"And these are for what area?"
Yvonne Hyde, CEO - Ministry of Economic Development
"The signage and the furniture will be along the highway itself. You can't mark part of the road and don't have the other part marked, so we will mark the entire thing and the signs will be along the 50 miles of road; from Belize City, the round-about at the Cemetery up to the cutoff at Roaring Creek - that the 50 miles."
"The second is for re-sealing of 12 kilometers, the part of the road that is white; it's very unsafe especially when it rains. It's to re-seal those parts of the road which had been deemed physically unsafe in terms of the surface of the road."
Reporter
"Works is to take approximately how long?"
Yvonne Hyde, CEO - Ministry of Economic Development
"About 12 months. If it's done according to schedule - by the middle of next year we should have a piece of road, a demonstration corridor, because the George Price is referred to as a demonstration corridor. The purpose is to show the country, to show how you can have a highway with all of the necessary items to make it a safe highway. That's why I mentioned the matter of education, because along with that comes the education - teaching people to appreciate what the rules of the road are."
The contracts were awarded as follows: for the western Highway: TEICHROEB & Sons Ltd and for the Hummingbird: M&R Construction Ltd.
For the 17 million Belize dollar road safety project, the next step is enacting strict seatbelt legislation.
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