Most Challenging BI Road Project to Date
This task came at a price. “The risk of employees working in such big cuts and in confined areas, and with cars transiting [practically] on top of them throughout the day were some of the biggest challenges,” said Devin McNab, General Manager of Elite, a company that is constructing the project. The French Harbour-based construction company, founded in 2007 and employing 350 workers, has become the island’s most experienced concrete road building firm.
The Coxen Hole project broke ground in June 2024, and McNab expects the work to conclude in June 2025. “The project seems that is going slow, but there are more than $2 million of underground [black water] infrastructure,” said McNab of the Coxen Hole black water system.
“ZOLITUR has been visionary and it’s the only institution that has looked after the [black water] problem.”
The paving of the PO-35 across Roatan’s biggest city is estimated at 59.9 million [$2.4 million] and is the most expensive per kilometer road Roatan has seen. “These 1.5 kilometers cost more than the 11 kilometers that were paved from the garbage dump to West End,” says McNab. “We are working nights. We are pouring [concrete] late nights instead of the day to alleviate the traffic.”
The project was originally designed to have bridges, but the Municipality of Roatan noticed there was an opportunity to save money by eliminating the bridges and expanding the culvert boxes in several different locations of the urban road project. There are three sections with culvert boxes, one by Serrano Hardware, another by the triángulo section, and a third by the ESBIR school street entrance. “You need to make it [Coxen Hole] more of a city than a town,” said Ing. Castillo, infrastructure chief of the Roatan Municipality.
The road crossing in Coxen Hole will consist of two 3.5 meter lanes, two bicycle lanes, and two sidewalks. “We are not cutting corners,” says McNab. The idea is for this portion – the busiest and most urban of the PO-35 road – to last 30-40 years. The PO-35 originates in West Bay and goes for 54 kilometers to Camp Bay Village.
The most expensive per kilometer road
The entire island of Roatan has been getting a vehicular road heart surgery since 2018. In 2024, the construction company Celaque has paved a concrete road from the Punta Gorda entrance east to Diamond Rock, but has not finished the portion that was supposed to reach Camp Bay village. Palmetto to Crawfish road is waiting for construction to begin this year.
The José Santos Guardiola portion of the PO-35 road is being rebuilt as well. The entire length in the contract is 7.2 kilometers. The municipality of Jose Santos Guardiola has awarded Elite a contract to construct 3 km of the road. ZOLITUR has funds for another 1.2 kilometers of the concrete road, and the central government has finally awarded Elite the three-kilometer contract from their budget.
