Who is Eligible to Build New BelCan Bridge?

There are four bridges in Belize District that are in urgent need of replacement, including the Swing Bridge and BelCan Bridge in the Old Capital.  Those structures are set to be replaced under the George Price Highway Upgrade Project; however, there seems to be some hostility between the Ministry of Finance and the MIDH over who will get the contract to build the new BelCan Bridge.  We hear first from Chief Engineer Evondale Moody.

 

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH

“So the four new structures that the MIDH is looking at is BelCan, the Belize City Swing Bridge.  The Burton Canal Bridge urgently needs to be changed and also Hector Creek Bridge which is in Hattieville.  As the minister mentioned, those four bridges are under the George Price Highway upgrade project, and so we are liaising with JIICA who will provide grant funding for us to replace the Swing Bridge.  We are awaiting a decision from the Ministry of Finance on how they want us to move with the BelCan Bridge because it’s an urgent one that also needs to be replaced because of its substructure.  And then section three of the project which is from Belize City encompasses two structures which is Burton Canal and also Hector Creek.

 

Reporter

“Is there a sort of turf battle over the BelCan which is keeping an unsafe bridge in operation for too long?”

 

Julius Espat

“Turf… I don’t want to use that word, I don’t believe in that word.  Our job is to make sure that when the procurement process is done, that we follow the international financial institutions’ guidelines.  They are the ones that lend the money and they are the ones that establish who can and who cannot bid. We will not allow, at least if I am at the helm, anybody to bid on a project that does not follow the procurement minimum qualifications that the IFI’s establish and if anybody is mad with that, so be it, because the IFI’s establish that and we have to respect it.”