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Engineer Makes It Plain About Failure On Lake I Boulevard
posted (October 18, 2017)
That project will also give the government 15 million dollars in reimbursement for the roundabouts abutting the Chetumal Street Bridge. That project - like this one for Faber's Road is overseen by the Ministry of Works Project Execution Unit - which, as you saw, has highly qualified engineers.

So then, what went wrong with Lake Independence Boulevard!? That's a galloping disaster. It seems like every week road crews are out there trying to do patchwork on the road that is uneven and sinking fast.

Today, in the first lucid and forthright explanation of what went wrong there, the Minister of Works Engineer said that he did the design of Lake I Boulevard, and the Ministry oversaw the landfill.

But then, along came BIL - which is Belize Infrastructure Limited - and they ignored the engineers, removed the landfill and did their own thing leading to a Boulevard of broken pavement:..

Evondale Moody- Project Engineer, Project Execution Unit, MOW
"In respect to the Chetumal Street the Lake Independence Boulevard, yes I was involved in the detailed design of the entire boulevard including the two roundabouts and the boulevard. However, after we had implemented the two roundabouts, the bridge and the section of Chetumal Street from Albert Hoy to the bridge we had only filled from Chetumal Street to Faber's Road. The reason why we only filled that was because we had recommended to the government that it needs to consolidate before you pave it. We placed approximately 6 feet, 1.5 meters of fill from Chetumal Street from Faber's Road and we stopped. Our reasoning and rational was the area is swamp, we have placed a layer of geogrid and we've filled it. During that time, we understand that I think BIL took it over and that was out of our control because we decided that we were only going to focus on the roundabout and the bridge. However, when BIL took it over, from a professional standpoint, they came in and they excavated the fill that we place which was wrong. The reason why we placed that fill was because we wanted that material to consolidate we wanted it to settle and reach a level that is adequate. They did not do that. They went in and they cut out what we did almost to the geogrid layer and then placed only, I think it was, 6 inches of road-based material and then they placed the hot-mix on top. If I go back to the iteration process for the design of pavement it goes back to the same two key factors: CBR, which is the strength of your sub grid and traffic loading. The traffic loading is causing the problem now because the vehicles are numerous in number and the pavement that is there cannot handle it. We had issued the design to the Ministry of Works based on what I had done but that was never used. When I passed there I had asked Mr. Pugar about it but it was beyond our control. We had completed the sections that we were supposed to do. In my mind, the failure is a designed failure, it's not a construction failure. Why? Because the hot-mix was adequate but the layer underneath which is your pavement layer was inadequate. So that is the reason why that section of the road is failing and it will continue to fail."

Reporter
"So, it's a designed failure? But who designed it?"

Evondale Moody
"BIL, I think somebody from BIL did it. It wasn't my design that was used."

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"I think a sort of scab has been lifted with respect to that portion of road that unfortunately is failing. I would want to suggest that you speak to Miss Mastry who is the CEO of BIL. I have spoken to her because Mr. Moody gave me the same version of events to which he has treated you this afternoon. Miss Mastry has her explanation and more importantly because I did press her on what's going to be done to fix what has gone wrong, I don't want to try to recount what was said. I will, therefore, ask you and any other member of the media to pose these legitimate questions to her and I will certainly say to her and I am sure that the Minister who is co-chair of BIL will do the same that there has to be a full accounting giving to the media and to the public with respect to the failure that obviously has taken place in terms of that Lake I Boulevard."

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