Faulty winch delays bridge opening to marine traffic

Harbour Bridge repairs

Following successful completion of rehabilitation works on the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) over the weekend, engineers have encountered a hiccup that would delay the reopening of the bridge to marine traffic.
The bridge was, on Thursday last, closed off to marine traffic to facilitate the replacement of a pontoon at the eastern retractor span, and was scheduled to reopen on Tuesday.
However, the bridge company has since indicated that the faulty winch was discovered after the rehabilitation works were completed on Saturday.
“The Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation has successfully completed its works scheduled for this weekend, including the changing of pontoons. However, upon completion, a fault was discovered with the north-eastern winch. This fault may result in a failure to open the bridge to marine (traffic) as scheduled on Tuesday, October 31,” it said on Sunday.
DHBC General Manager Rawlston Adams, along with his engineering team, will be meeting with media operatives today to explain the issues developed and the process to get them fixed.
Prior to the closure of the bridge to marine traffic, the DHBC would have had consultations with stakeholders to facilitate the repairs.
Adams had explained last week that the process would normally entail a temporary pontoon being installed and the original one taken out, refurbished and then replaced. However, because the pontoon that had to be changed housed all the winches and hydraulic pipes to facilitate the retraction, that process could not work.
Instead, a new pontoon had to be fabricated to immediately and permanently replace the old pontoon, so that the hydraulic pipes and the winches can be hooked up back for the bridge retraction. But apparently something went wrong while the engineers were reconnecting the winches.
The replacing of this pontoon is the final phase of rehabilitation works which kicked off earlier this year. Back in June, a similar exercise was carried out on the western retractor span without any hiccups. The project altogether, carries a cost of $103 million.
Meanwhile, given that the structure has been standing for the past 40 years, a number of other reinforcement efforts are expected to be undertaken in the first quarter of 2018.