Demerara Harbour Bridge on track for reopening to light traffic

Engineers work round the clock to meet the deadline for Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) to reopen to light traffic.

General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation, Wayne Watson, said in a short interview that the work on span 10 is done and the anchor blocks have been put back in place to make it line up with the other spans. He went on to say that work had begun on spans 9, 8, and 7 and that it should be done by tonight.

President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali inspected the ongoing repairs on the bridge yesterday.

Industrial Fabrications Inc (InFab) Engineer Max Gouveia informed Ali that more work is still needed, given the extent of the structural damage following the impact from a fuel tanker on Saturday morning.

“From the impact of the vessel, what we’re having is major alignment issues with both span nine and span ten; at this point in time, what we’re trying to do is get everything into aligning and close the bridge up, but there is still a lot of issues just from the impact,” said Gouveia.

Meanwhile, Public Works Minister Bishop Juan Bishop Edghill said that a high-level Board of Inquiry had been established to probe the incident.

“The MV Tradewind Passion was the final vessel to transit the bridge when the incident occurred. Minister Edghill said five vessels were scheduled to pass at that particular time, and four had already successfully passed when the incident occurred.”

MV Trade Wind Passion is a Panamanian fuel ship transporting fuel to the Guyana Oil Company (GUYOIL). The Guyanese River Pilot has been suspended by the Maritime Administration Department as the investigation is ongoing.

Demerara Harbour Bridge was opened in 1978 and has been serving since then as the key link between Regions Three and Four.