Alternative arrangements for heavy traffic being considered – Ministry

Harbour Bridge assessment

The Public Works Ministry has announced that alternate arrangements are being considered for hefty vehicles to cross the Demerara River, after mechanical issues on two deteriorating retractor spans resulted in restricted marine and heavy traffic on the Harbour Bridge since Friday.

On Saturday, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill convened a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn; General Manager of DHB, Rawlston Adams and several specialists in the field, to address the issue. This was followed by an inspection of the site to which a time-sensitive engineering solution is being finalised.
A team of engineers is expected to facilitate a supervised retraction of the bridge today at 08:00h, to allow for marine traffic. However, marine traffic will be unable to pass for a few days due to aggressive works to fix the initial problem.
The Ministry said alternative arrangements for heavy vehicles are being contemplated, by use of a barge. Until the situation resumes to normalcy, motorists are asked to strictly observe the speed limit, which is currently 20 miles per hour.
“The high-level team will continue to conduct daily reviews and if needs be, twice daily, so as to ensure that the works to be done are completed in a timely manner taking into account the importance of this structure and its necessity to commuters,” the statement directed.
Interruption of vehicular traffic will be announced by the management of Demerara Harbour Bridge in an appropriate manner.
After the mechanical issues were detected on Friday, Minister Edghill rapped the former Administration for their mismanagement of the bridge over the past five years. According to him, it spoke of the level of incompetence and neglect of Guyana’s physical infrastructure by the APNU/AFC coalition.
The structural integrity of the Harbour Bridge was identified as an issue since 2016 and the matter was raised several times by engineers to then Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson as well as Finance Minister, Winston Jordan. But little action was taken to fix the issue from the inception.
“I was extremely disappointed when I got there to learn that this problem is known and was known since 2016 and it remains unresolved…the Guyanese population must be advised that all of these problems that we are facing today is not because the PPP/C came to office a month ago,” Minister Edghill had posited.
He acknowledged that the bridge is of paramount importance to the livelihood of the Guyanese people – and the maintenance of such infrastructure should not be abandoned.
“Everybody knows the importance of the Demerara Harbour Bridge; any Administration that is in the office know the investments that have to be made to keep the Demerara Harbour Bridge in a manner that it can be used and serve the people of Guyana,” the Minister explained.
To this end, he had ordered Adams to devise timely options to resume the free flow of traffic since the issue can take up to a week to resolve.
An average of 10,000 vehicles traverse the crossing daily which was initially designed to last for 20 years. However, the bridge has outlasted its lifespan by more than 20 years. (G12)