Pressie made one of his impromptu visits – but AFTER 5:30am! – to the new, fixed-span, suspension DHB, now under construction, to see how things were going. The man is from Leonora on the West Side, and apart from his general concerns about his government’s infrastructural developmental plan in general, it gotta hit home, every time he crosses the old, clanking, floating pontoons on the old bridge, that this has been a bridge too slow. Seems when he arrived at the eastern end, where the approaches are under construction, the workers – who were supposed to be working “round the clock” – hadn’t even arrived!! Pressie wasn’t pleased!! So, he let the Chinese contractor, China Railway Construction Company (CRCC), know his displeasure in no uncertain way!!
Now, this is a bridge with quite a checkered history – having been on the cards for decades, since the floating bridge has looong passed its expiration date!! When the APNU/AFC coalition sneaked in after 2015, however, the Bangle Man abandoned the PPP’s plans that had been designed by in-house Guyanese engineers. He even moved the location where the new structure was to be constructed – from Houston on the East Bank to land owned by a party financier at Versailles on the West Bank.
Money gaffa mek and money gaffa pay back!! A half-assed $170-million sole-sourced design was awarded in 2017, for which a dozen Chinese companies had bid. Then imagine it took the Chinese ambassador to (undiplomatically?) point out that since the PNC Bridge would – like the old one – still have to be retracted for ships to pass, it was “so 19th century!!” Wasn’t no-retraction half the incentive for a new bridge, because, with all the new cars, the delay at the DHB was causing millions of lost man hours??
Anyhow, with less than two months into his term, starting Aug 2020, President Ali announced that with Expressions of Interest being solicited, he’d have a fixed-span bridge in place within 4 years. That would be end of 2024!! He signed a US$256.6m contract with one Chinese company, China State Engineering Corporation (CSEC), in October 2021, and then switched in May 2022 to the present Chinese contractor, CRCC, for US$260m, cause they were more firm on completion. However, with the folks at Peters Hall refusing to move – even though they were being compensated waaaay beyond market values – the date was pushed back to end of March; then end of August – which Pressie’s gonna hold them to.
While it might not be the most pressing reason, with elections scheduled for around November, a completed bridge by then – with the kinks worked out – would be a nice talking point!! And, of course, those highways connecting the Bridge to the West Side highways!!
…space rescue
Well, it was one for the tinsel screen!! Here it was, two astronauts were stuck for nine months in the International Space Station – way beyond the seven days they were scheduled – and had to be rescued. As all of us should know by now, when we’re in space, there is no gravity, and this causes all sorts of changes with our bodies that’s been floating around in a weightless state. Especially with our bones, that have been designed to carry our weight around on earth.
NASA wasn’t comfortable bringing them back home because of issues detected with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft during the test flight — particularly helium leaks and engine thruster problems — on the vehicle. So, what to do? Enter Trump’s designated government shrinker Elon Musk and his private enterprise Space X to the rescue. They brought down the two stranded astronauts in a successful splash down off Tallahassee, Florida.
Didn’t hurt that stocks in Musk’s several troubled companies all rose to their pre-Trump days!!
…joy to the world
Your Eyewitness passed the Square last night, and thought – with all the lights waving around – he was seeing a local re-enactment of Michael Jackson’s “Heal the world”. Sadly, there were no stars, just some sad pretenders!!
