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It's been a while since the public got an update on how the project will work, and Lake Independence Area Rep. Mark King gave the media a tour of how the project is going, and what the long term plans are for the area. Here's what he told us this afternoon:

Hon. Mark King - Area Rep, Lake Independence
"There has been a lot of speculations about what is going to happen here especially when they had the situation with the squatters. I am figuring that we are our half way point in terms of development. Everybody must understand that in every community we are trying to bring the business to Lake I. Lake I was one of those old constituencies that was not planned properly and so with the extension of Lake I which is the Lake Independence Boulevard, the Chetumal Street area and the Holy Emmanuel into Gugulung area we are trying to now go into some detail planning in terms of drawing business that would help the same poor people of the area and also will help all Belizeans in the area."

"What we have right now is we are in the area whereby we are clearing land and we've already clear the land and we are putting the filling to put the community resource center and the national bank. Especially the national bank we should have construction starting on that very soon I think. The tender is already out if I am not mistaken and after that we have made also a decision in Cabinet to have the Belize Civic Center will now be in this area. We have an additional 4 acres which we found fit to bring in this area for the reason that the Civic Center didn't have much area for parking and other thing, and back here we have just about enough land for everything in terms of that kind of sporting. We will also have the multi-complex center which will certainly be used for open sports and at the end of the day all of these projects combined with the bridge which you will see almost completed. We are expected to complete the bridge somewhere along October/November. However of the rains proceed then I guess we will look at December/January for the completion of the bridge which will then cross us into Chetumal Street on the Belama side and which will joined the northern and the western highways both together and of course that does a lot of things in terms of easing people from going into the city from gas and so forth."

Daniel Ortiz
"In terms of incentives for the business community to draw them to this location, what sort of things are you looking at?"

Hon. Mark King - Area Rep, Lake Independence
"I'll tell you I don't need to draw business to this location. The amount of businessmen that have call the government already in terms of wanting to put a facility in this area, it's more than we can accept because it's only the front line that can hold the business."

As you heard, the Belize Civic Center will be relocated on Lake I Boulevard. It will be right next to the Multipurpose Complex. If you're wondering what the logic is of putting two sporting facilities near to each other, King says that there is a method to the madness. The Civic will be more open to the public, and the Multi-purpose Center will be a sporting facility for the highest level of competition, which will be tightly managed.

King says that the estimated time of getting Lake I Boulevard developed is a minimum 2 years to get the plan done, but the Government hopes to have the National Bank and the Civic Center built and operational by the end of next year.

While we were there, King took us to see the progress on that bridge which will connect the Belama area with the Western Highway. Here's how it currently looks.

Edmund Robateau - Supervisor, Cisco Construction
"Right now we have completed 2/3 of the length of the bridge. The bridge has an approximately 195 feet long and we expect to finish in early December. Our plan right now is to push to finish it in October. Right now we are casting the slab on the deck and we are working on the approachment slab. Right now as you can see behind there we have the structure of the beams, we have an erosion wall, we have abutment and two pier complete and we are working on the other abutment so that we can placed the rest of the beams."

Contractors have committed to open the bridge by the end of this year.