No roundabout on 1-kilometer stretch of road between Westrac/Brodies and vegetable stall/Shell Depot in Belize City
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Apr. 9, 2018– There have been many complaints on the morning talk shows that the construction taking place on that stretch of road between the last two roundabouts on the Philip Goldson Highway — starting from an area where the Shell depot and a popular vegetable stand are located and all the way up to the roundabout by Chetumal Street/Westrac, which is near Brodies Supermarket — has been posing major inconveniences to residents of Belama and Buttonwood Bay. Those complaints have largely gone unnoticed by the officials responsible, however.
The stretch of road is about one kilometer in length, and with gas prices heading for the skies, motorists and residents of the area say there is a need for another roundabout, between the two already mentioned.
Today, Amandala has learnt that another roundabout is not in the plan of the engineers from the Ministry of Works, who have locked off that section of the highway, making it necessary for motorists to traverse the entire length of the one-kilometer piece of road in question to access the side streets on both sides of the highway.
For example, if one is travelling from Ladyville and wants to make purchases at Brodies, one has to travel the entire 1-kilometer length of the highway, to the next roundabout near the Shell depot, and return another kilometer up the road, going out of town, to access the entrance to Brodies/Westrac, which, of course, is ridiculous.
Amandala spoke to Francis Woods, a representative of Cisco Construction, the company which is constructing the new piece of highway, which is being re-designed into a three-and-four lane highway.
We asked Woods if the median will remain locked off, denying access to the residents on both sides.
Woods explained, “We are just the contractor. We build what they give us. When it comes to the design, they deal with that with the engineers, who do studies and so on.”
Woods said that the plan indeed calls for a third roundabout, “but it will be closer to the Haulover Bridge…near the Benny’s Apartments.”
The Ministry of Works engineers, by means of their design, will be giving persons located close to Benny’s Apartments, which is beyond the Chetumal Street/Westrac roundabout, access to the other side of the highway, but many more persons live in the area between the last two roundabouts, the Chetumal Street/Brodies/Westrac roundabout and the vegetable stall/Shell depot roundabout, Amandala explained to Woods.
Woods said that there will be a median in the middle, and no turning will be allowed.