Govt considering location to facilitate barge for heavy vehicles

DHB assessment

…situation no “quick fix” – Minister

The Public Works Ministry is currently seeking to identify an area to facilitate a barge operation, which will transport heavy vehicles across the Demerara River. This is in light of the mechanical issues detected on two deteriorating retractor spans on the Demerara Harbour Bridge, which has restricted marine and heavy traffic since last week.
This was according to Minister within the Ministry, Deodat Indar, who told Guyana Times on Monday that a team is still assessing the retractor span on the structure while they seek to find a location on the East Bank of Demerara, where the barge can be facilitated. This temporary solution enables movement across the river, until the bridge is fixed.
“We can’t put heavy vehicles on the bridge. That’s why the alternative is to get a barge to move some of the heavy transportation to avoid them going on the bridge. There’s a team looking at the structural issue that we have there on the retractor span. We have to put an alternative in place, which is the barging, to get vehicles to the West Coast side. Right now, we’re currently looking to find a spot on the East Bank of the river where we can land the barge,” he stated.
Minister Indar said the situation cannot be remedied with a “quick fix”. He reiterated that the issue was brought to the attention of the former Administration since 2016 but was never addressed. It was inherited by the new PPP/C Administration, leading to the recent incident.

“This is not a quick-fix. There’s a high-level team looking at it along with some engineers. They’re now looking at the issue to see what can be done. This matter was reported to the previous Government since 2016,” he expressed.
On Monday, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill also met with truck drivers, who are affected by the current issue. Their concerns were shared as to the mechanisms in place to continue their usual activity.
Edghill had convened a meeting on Saturday 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 are were tasked with facilitating a supervised retraction of the bridge last Sunday, to allow for marine traffic. 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.
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. (G12)