Corentyne River Bridge: 2-lane, 2-section structure connected by island proposed

The Governments of Guyana and Suriname were on Wednesday presented with the design of the Corentyne River Bridge, which the consultant, WSP Caribbean, proposed as a two-section, two-lane bridge that is connected by an island between the two countries.

WSP Caribbean unveiled the design of the Corentyne River Bridge during a detailed presentation to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and his Surinamese counterpart Dr Riad Nurmohanmed at the second high-level decision makers (HLDM) meeting held in Georgetown. The first HLDM meeting was held in February 2023 in Paramaribo.
The Surinamese Public Works Minister travelled to Guyana on Wednesday for a two-day visit for the presentation by the Trinidad-based company.
WSP Caribbean’s design proposed the Corentyne River Bridge as a two-section structure that is connected via an island (Long Island) to link Guyana and Suriname. The design also features a two-lane bridge, with accommodation for a third lane in case of an emergency.

It was noted that this presentation by the WSP technical team was made ahead of the final report, which will detail other aspects of their study, such as cost of the bridge, traffic projections, design of the road, financial and economic evaluation, and environmental assessment, among other key elements.
At the presentation, which was done at the Public Works Ministry’s office in Kingston, Georgetown, both Public Works Ministers lauded the WSP Caribbean team for the work they have done thus far. In fact, Minister Edghill explained that the consultant had accommodated special requests from the two Governments.
“At the policy level, we did ask the consultancy to provide some flexibility, in that, one: information that you already had available before your final report, we were able to access that and share with the prequalified firms.”
According to Edghill, that information would help the five prequalified bidders to prepare and submit their proposals by the July month-end deadline, as well as facilitate their proposals being used during the evaluation process.
The five prequalified bidders are: China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC); China Railway Construction International Ltd (CRCCI); China Railway Construction Caribbean Co Ltd (CRCCCL) and China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group Co Ltd (CRBG); China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC); China Overseas Engineering Group Co Ltd (COVEC); China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd (CREEC); and China Railway First Group (CRRG); and Netherland-based Ballast Nedam Infra Suriname BV.
The bids submitted will be opened on August 1, 2023 and will undergo two rounds of evaluation: first individually by each country, and then jointly by the two nations, in order to decide on the most competitive bidder.
“That preferred consortium or…bidder will then be engaged in negotiations. So, we intend to have a contract signed in October of 2023, so that we could go into mobilisation and actual construction. This is a project that should not suffer any delays. As a matter of fact, we need to be moving it along, and that is one of the reasons why we provided information ahead of the final report, to get things moving so that we could have submissions [in] time,” the Minister noted.
The US$2M contract signed with WSP Caribbean for several preliminary studies and research to be conducted on the Corentyne Bridge was funded by the Surinamese Government. Minister Nurmohamed, in reiterated the importance of the Corentyne River Bridge, has said, “The building of the bridge is very high on the agenda for both countries. And not only for the two countries, but for the development of the region.”
The high-span Corentyne River Bridge will be built according to the Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain model, and will be an approximately 3.1-kilometre bridge connecting Moleson Creek in Guyana to South Drain in Suriname, with a landing on Long Island in the Corentyne River, where a commercial hub and tourist destination will be established. That free zone will see major infrastructural development, such as hotels, recreational parks, entertainment spots, tourist attractions, malls, and farmers’ markets.
Running from Moleson Creek to Long Island, the bridge will be a low-level structure approximately one kilometre long, with a 2200-metre (2.2 km) road across Long Island and a high bridge spanning 2100 metres (2.1km) thereafter. At the high end of the bridge, which will facilitate marine traffic, it will cater for 40,000 to 45,000 DWT (deadweight tonnage) capacity, featuring a vertical (height) clearance of 43 metres and a horizonal (width) clearance of about 100 metres. (G8)