Belize To Link Up With Pan American Highway

Belize March 3, 2011 By Belizean

Belize has signed a $47 million dollar contract to pave the last 23 miles of its southern highway to connect to Guatemala in the deep south and link up with the Pan American Highway system. The project funded by the Kuwaiti and OPEC investment funds will provide hundreds of new jobs over the next three years of the life of the project. And more importantly provide a sorely needed link to Central America in Belize’s deep south – the area with the largest concentration of poverty and underdevelopment in Belize – home of the Ketchi Maya and Garifuna nations.

Belize currently has but two land border crossings, one at the north with the prosperous Mexican state of Quintana Roo, and one at the west with the relatively underdeveloped town of Melchor de Mencos in Guatemala. The new highway will link Belize to the Izabal department in Guatemala and provide a strategic link to markets in the Rio Dulce, Moralez, Puerto Barrios, Santo Tomas de Castilla (both prominent deep water ports) and northern Honduras areas. All important for tourism and trade.

The highway will be built by Belizean company Cisco Constructiuon Ltd. and will pave the area known as The Dump near Punta Gorda, Toledo, to Jalacte which abuts the Belize Guatemala border in the southwest. The  upgrading will give the residents of Western Toledo improved access to Punta Gorda and the rest of the country. A spokeswoman for the Belize Ministry of Works was quoted as saying that “This 23 miles of road has been an area of major maintenance demands for us due to the rugged terrain so it’s a long overdue and we can’t wait to see it upgraded to the standard we have designed.”

There is speculation that the new highway may be linked to new petroleum deposits in southern Belize that have yet to be developed. Prime Minister Dean Barrow has been quoted as stating that the best prospects for further petroleum discoveries are in southern Belize. Belize currently exports 5,000 barrels per day of high grade sweet light crude oil to Central America and the U.S. This from but one oilfield in western Belize.