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Well, the nightmare is over, because today, we found contractor RJB Construction finishing up the hot-mix paving of the Lake Independence Boulevard. But, it's more than just a road, it's a gateway to a whole development plan for the area. Here's what the coordinators told us today:

Daniel Ortiz
"In your opinion, did we get value for money in this particular project?"

Christy Mastry - General Manager, BIL
"Yeah, definitely. We definitely got value for money. It's a fairly extensive scope of work. All the drainage had to be put in place. The drainage anticipates not only just the drainage for this road, but the 45 acres adjacent and some of the water shed coming off of Western Highway. That also had to be engineered, so we have very large culverts in certain areas, we have very large box drains in other areas and we have connectivity to the existing drainage that coming off the Western Highway. So lot of the grey works took about 4-5 months to complete. Hot mix has been a fairly expedient process, but that also undertook the civil works below it, because the hot mix really only is as good as the sub-base. So the contractor had to make sure that they grade it properly, that they fill properly, that they got the proper compaction before we proceeded with the hot mix and I think we started on the hot mix about 3-4 weeks ago and we will probably be at it by the end of early next week. That includes two-double lanes on both sides, the median, bicycle lanes, 8-foot wide sidewalks - all of the plantings, the lighting and all off the underground drainage and all the other conduit work BEL in the future and BTL and BWS, that you are not seeing right now."

Daniel Ortiz
"In Belize City, the focus has been concrete streets, why did you all decide to go with hot mixing instead?"

Christy Mastry - General Manager, BIL
"We definitely decide to go with hot mix because we know that this areas has of course recently been all fill and reclaimed land area and one of the critical issues with that is you have settlement overtime. We've seen some areas that have settled, we saw some areas on the adjacent approach to the bridge that we experience right now. So we know there will be settlement - minimal. But the hot mix really allows for the flexibility of that settlement more so that concrete. Concrete is a rigid surface, it has the potential to crack if settlement adjacent to one are is more so that the other."

Daniel Ortiz
"Whats the projected longevity of this particular road?"

Christy Mastry - General Manager, BIL
"Hot mix will stand. As we know the airport road was done out of hot mix and that's been 10-12 years already with it. So timeframe it has the exact longevity as any other hard surface that is not undermined by flooding or constant water pooling or sitting of water on the road surface."

The project, which includes the bridge, the road, the drains, the sidewalks and other infrastructure works cost 3.2 million dollars.