The Philip SW Goldson Freeway and Remate Bypass Improvement Project
Belize
Merit Award
Sent by: Polytechnic Engineering and Architecture SC
Owner: Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing (MIDH)
Leading design company | Civil, structural and MEP engineer: Polytechnic Engineering and Architecture SC
General contractors: Cisco Construction; Teichoreb & Sons Ltd.
This project transformed a 125-kilometer road in the Central American nation of Belize, between the country’s international airport and the Mexican border, from a frequently flooded and unsafe passage into a much more sustainable artery.
The project team had to raise sections of the road to protect against flooding while respecting the natural environment. Crews installed sidewalks, bus shelters, crosswalks, traffic signals, and guardrails for sections that pass through forests, wetlands, and denser urban areas. Although only roundabouts and bus stops now have lampposts on this country road, children and pedestrians are safer. When we walk to school and back along the edges of the now paved road, “we don’t have to be in the mud or the grass or even the dust,” says Deborah Innis, a teacher.
Alessio Gori, contract and project manager at Politecnica Ingegneria ed Architettura SC, says construction crews completely realigned and rebuilt the accident-prone Mamayal curve, used mainly by trucks related to sugarcane cultivation and harvesting . In this stretch, crews replaced the existing culverts with bigger and better ones.
