Truck owners cautioned on weight, speeding as DHB retractor span fixed

A week-long battle to repair a section of the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DBH) retractor span finally wrapped up on Sunday.

The retractor span at section nine of the bridge had developed mechanical issues resulting in no retractions for marine traffic for several days. In fact, the bridge had to be closed off to both marine and vehicular traffic on Sunday for over three hours to facilitate the urgent rehabilitation works.
In a statement, the Public Works Ministry said the works were successfully completed ahead of the 16:00h scheduled reopening of the bridge and vehicular traffic was able to flow as per normal.
The Ministry is now calling upon all motorists, especially truck drivers, to observe the weight limit as well as the speed limit since both excessive weight and sudden application of brakes create damages to age-old structure that are very costly.
During the period of repairs, special retractions had to be supervised by the engineers to facilitate marine traffic. However, it was noted that by today retractions will be back on schedule, to facilitate both north and southbound marine vessels.
Meanwhile, Public Works Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill lauded the engineering team as well as the management and technical team from the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation for their work beyond the call of duty over the last week, since announcing to the public severe damages to the retractor span.
According to Minister Edghill, longterm solutions as it relates to the weight on the bridge are still being pursued, trucks and heavy motor vehicles will still have restrictions at this time.
The team had held consultations last Sunday to come up with a work plan for the repair works to be executed.
It was noted at that time that the deteriorating structural integrity of the bridge exists and had been identified since 2016 and the matter was raised several times by the engineers to the then Ministers of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Jaipaul Sharma, as well as the Minister of Finance.
An average of 10,000 vehicles traverse the crossing daily which was initially designed to last for 20 years. However, the bridge has outlasted its lifespan by more than 20 years.
Nevertheless, the PPP/C Government has announced plans to construct a four-lane high span bridge across the Demerara River.