Who Qualifies to Build Bridges in Belize?

On Thursday, the Briceño administration formally opened the new Haulover Bridge, a massive concrete structure that was designed and built by Belizean contractors and engineers.  While the contract to build the bridge was awarded to M&M’s Engineering, questions are being asked regarding the eligibility of other local contractors where bridge construction is concerned.  Here’s how the Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Julius Espat, responded to those questions.

 

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development

“I’ll tell you who can bid on a bridge right now, right now, at that level.  You have all the road contractors, Cisco Construction, Imer can bid right now without even thinking about it, they can pass the prequalification process.  So that’s two.  You have Banman, I think, Roadway can bid.  You have Teichroeb, that I believe can bid.  You have one of the gentlemen from Spanish Lookout that can bid.  A&N can bid and now Roque can bid.  So you have six, I think you might have a seventh one.  And so everybody has an equal opportunity to be able to win a bid.  Roque has an advantage to a certain extent because he is the brainchild of the design.  So all the other contractors, when they build bridges, have to by the pre-stressed beams from him, they have to hire his engineers, they have to hire his barges.  He has done a wonderful job to put himself in a position to be able to do this, but the other contractors can and so at the end of the day you look at the technical aspect of it and all of them will pass.  And then you look at the financial and most of them will pass, and then from there you look at the price and whoever comes in the lowest, and not always it’s the lowest that wins, is awarded.  This is the first time Roque [Matus] has received a job of this magnitude on his own.  All the other bridges, all the ones he did on Caracol, he did under Cisco and under A&N, and under Banman, if I’m not mistaken.  The one in Sarteneja, he did under OECC’s supervision.  The one on the Coastal [Plain Highway] he did under the mandate of Imer Hernandez.”