Back in the day, Cecil B DeMille produced the biggest film spectacles – especially biblical ones like The Ten Commandments. His tagline screamed “ten years in the making!!” to emphasise how much time he’d put into his lurid and dramatic scenes!! Well, the Demerara Harbour Bridge is a production that’s already consumed TEN years – and we’re again being promised “in two years!!”
Yes. Believe it or not, it’s been ten years almost to the day that the PPP Government – stymied by the APNU and AFC Opposition in Parliament with a majority of seats – okayed a plan for a new, four-lane, “fixed-span” DHB. The design and possible locations for the new bridge had been proposed by the bridge’s General Manager, Rawlston Adams. Versailles on the West Bank to Houston on the East Bank, and Good Hope on the East Bank to Patentia on the West Bank were proposed as possible locations.
Imagine that…a local engineering team from our Public Works came up with a plan on their own! Unfortunately plans were stymied by the Opposition, and in 2015, the PPP Government was ousted. The Coalition Govt, however, pretended to be Columbus about the idea of a new bridge: Public Works Minister David Patterson opened new bids for a design. But amazingly, in 2016, sole-sourced it to a Dutch company for $53 million!! And promised it’d be completed in two years – 2018!!
2018, of course, came and went, and we still had to take our chances with our famous floating bridge that was held together with spit and twine – and billions of dollars expended!! To be fair to the Coalition, they’d become preoccupied with remaining in office by conjuring up arguments like 33’s NOT the majority of 65, and other examples of PNC math!! In the meantime, they’d decided that the best location was Houston-to-Versailles, but, for reasons never fully explained, did not say why the bridge had to take a wide swing to land exactly on a piece of land recently acquired by a big PNC financier!!
By 2018, with mostly Chinese companies bidding, the Chinese Ambassador was forced to undiplomatically point out that the “raised” section for ships to pass was sooo 19th century!! Anyhow, we know the PNC was finally voted out in 2020, and the PPP immediately embarked on fulfilling its old promise – reiterated in its manifesto! The PPP decided on a la Grange-Nandy Park location, secured financing, secured a contractor, and started working since last year. One philanthropist even donated some prepared land for the East Bank landing!!
Your Eyewitness hopes all goes as planned, since, from reports, crossing the present floating bridge — long past its expiration date — has become a daily horror story for thousands!!
…a Burnhamite confession
During last week’s observances of Burnham’s 100th birthday, a lotta weird letters appeared in the press. There was that account from a sitting PNC MP about Burnham’s “contributions” to Guyana – some when he wasn’t even in the picture politically!! But the most surreal was one account by a fanatical PNCite from London. Claimed he saw the ghost of Burnham – appearing like Hamlet’s father to pass on a message.
In Hamlet’s case, it was to alert him as to the old man’s murderers – while in Burnham’s case, evidently it was to instruct the (clearly lonely) Londoner to murder the present PNC leader!! The Londoner claimed he saw this “tall and imposing” Burnham – missing the characteristic that earned the man his sobriquet “Fatboy”! – who castigated him for making Norton PNC leader!! Which “mess” the Londoner “must clean up”!! Now, from being forced to stare at Burnham’s picture on his exercise book cover for years, your Eyewitness knows Burnham can give folks nightmares!
But to remove Norton from London??
…let them hear
With the Opposition ignoring the opportunities to share in the country’s oil-fuelled development – and only complaining – the Government’s initiative to share out hearing aids is fortuitous.
Unless they’re “hard ears”, and not “hard of hearing”!!
