New Demerara River bridge: Govt faced no resistance in relocating persons – Min Edghill

With $5.2 billion set aside in this year’s budget to advance works on the new Demerara River bridge, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill has revealed that all the persons who were residing along the pathway of this massive infrastructural development have agreed to relocate, without any resistance.
He made the revelation on Tuesday whilst responding to questions from Opposition Member of Parliament David Patterson regarding the project – for which a US$260 million contract was in May 2022 signed with a joint venture led by China Railway and Construction Corporation Limited.
Patterson asked, “Can the Honourable Minister state the percentage of work completed, if any…Has the contractor submitted any geotechnical or any design reports, if so, have these been approved? Has the commencement order for the project been issued? And if so, on what date?”

In responding, Minister Edghill noted that only recently, a meeting was held between the Ministry’s project team, the contractor, and the supervisory firm, Politecnica from Italy.
“We have just recently received in the country, the supervisory firm that will be supervising this design, and build project. That supervisory firm took effect…from the 15th of January 2023 and they are in their mobilisation stage. I met them (on January 27) for the first time. The contractor is required to submit all the things that Mr Patterson…was asking, to the supervisory firm so that they could review them and approve them so that we could actually have approvals for the construction,” Edghill explained.
“We would be able to keep the nation updated in another couple of weeks, various stages of where the bridge will be,” the Minister added.
Moreover, Minister Edghill revealed that the Government faced no issues in relocating those persons who were on the pathway of the project.
“The Ministry of Housing has successfully…negotiated and handled all of the properties that are in the path of the bridge, and we have no resistance from anyone not wanting to move,” he noted.
The new bridge would land aback Nandy Park on the East Bank of Demerara and at La Grange, West Bank of Demerara.
However, the Minister told the National Assembly that the commencement order has not yet been issued but preliminary works on the project have already begun.
“The mobilisation of staff, the last word I had, there are in excess of 35 technical staff from the contractor from China that was already in the country. There are a number of Guyanese who have already been hired.”
“The issues of the alignment and where the bridge is going has already been verified; the surveys…and everything that needed to be done, that would have necessitated the Ministry of Housing engaging people for relocation, all of that has been done. Now that we have in place the competent, properly put in place supervisory firm, Politecnica, those other issues of actual construction.”
Edghill further assured that “the clear instructions that I’ve given to the contractor and to the supervisory firm, is the contract states 24 months from the time of commencement of this contract and we are holding the contractor and the consultant to those timelines.”
The new bridge will be a fixed 2.65-kilometer four-lane high-span cable-stayed structure across the Demerara River, with the width of the driving surface being about 23.6 metres.
The bridge, which features a bicycle lane, will bring an end to closures to vehicular traffic with a 50-metre fixed-high span to cater for the free flow of vessels uninterrupted. The river will be dredged along a 13.5-kilometre stretch to accommodate large vessels.
This new bridge will replace the ageing floating Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB), which has outlived its lifespan by several decades.
At 1.25 miles (2.01km), the current Demerara Harbour Bridge is a strategic link between the East and West Banks of Demerara, facilitating the daily movement of thousands of vehicles, people, and cargo.
Just last month, Mohamed’s Enterprise announced that it has gifted the Government its US$3 million prime waterfront property at Providence, EBD, to facilitate the construction of the new Demerara River crossing.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has already signed a loan agreement with the Bank of China for €160.8 million, to be injected into the construction of the major new bridge.
Dr Singh said that this loan would finance the majority of the cost to advance the bridge construction. He also indicated that the Guyana Government would put up the remaining funding to complete the critical infrastructure.
Already, some $21.1 billion in the 2022 Budget has been allocated towards work on the bridge.
The contract was awarded to a joint venture led by China Railway and Construction Corporation (International) Limited, which outbid four other pre-qualified international companies that submitted proposals for the project.