In order to facilitate critical repair works, the Demerara Harbour Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic for six hours today.
The closure will commence from 08:00h to 14:00h. The works commenced from Friday, which was the Bridge’s last retraction for marine traffic. Retractions will continue from Tuesday.
The pontoon holding up the western retractor span is expected to be replaced next weekend
This particular project is to facilitate the replacement of pontoons under the retractor spans of the Harbour Bridge and is to be done in two phases.
The first phase will see the exchanging of the pontoon under the western retractor span and the works have been pegged at some $109 million. Phase Two, however, which is the replacement of the pontoon under the eastern retractor span, will be done before the first quarter of 2018.
According to General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC), Rawlston Adams, at a press conference last week, the existing pontoon has been in place for some 18 years and therefore, it needs to be changed urgently.
He explained that in exchanging pontoons, they would normally take out the existing pontoon and put in a temporary one so that they can rehabilitate the pontoon that was there before. However, he pointed out that in this case, that method is not an option.
“The pontoon that we’re about to change houses all the wrenches and hydraulics pipes to facilitate the retraction so under normal circumstances, we would take it out, replace it, and put in a temporary one. In this case, that’s not an option because you have to replace and immediately hook up back the hydraulic pipes and the wrenches so that the bridge can retract,” he noted.
Adams further told reporters at a press briefing on Friday that these works took some three years to plan.
