The Berbice River Bridge

May 17, 2008 Editorial

The news that the Berbice River Bridge is likely to be completed come September is welcome. In a recent tour, the media was told that the bridge was close to fifty per cent complete and work is moving apace to ensure that the entire structure and access roads should be finished on schedule.

Despite having to change the original design of the bridge to accommodate the high span nearer to the eastern extremity, work is proceeding on schedule.

From what was seen there is no reason to question the belief that the contractors will meet the deadline set, even though there have been some engineering problems with the river bed.

The need for such a link was long overdue. The opposition party, Rise Organise And Rebuild (ROAR) had in fact made the construction of the bridge one of its main campaign promises in the 2001 elections. Even though the PPP had promised the bridge from its earliest days, there was little movement until ROAR placed it as a major political issue.

During all the time, persons and vehicles crossing the river had to make do with the highly slow and inefficient ferries which have been around since the 1950s. Despite putting in another vessel to service the established crossing, the situation has never really improved.

Given the established need years ago for such a facility, it was extremely disappointing that it took so long for the government to move ahead with this project. The inadequacy of the ferry crossings at Rosignol and New Amsterdam though boosted, has never met the demands for a more reliable and improved service. With far more persons now crisscrossing, the result is interminable delays for vehicles using that service.

The only logical solution was to have built a bridge and having decided to go ahead, the government still had to wait for the international financial agencies to advise them on the feasibility of the proposal since unless this was cleared, funding for the access roads would not have been forthcoming.

Having been given the all-clear, a minor and unnecessary political storm was created because of the location of the bridge. The government argued that the present location was the better option since to have located the bridge downstream at Everton would have involved miles upon miles of access roads which would have made the project more costly and perhaps less feasible considering the anticipated traffic.
The bridge marks an important development in many respects for Guyana. It is being built, not by the government but by a consortium of businesses from mainly the financial sector that have a great deal of local funds at their disposal but limited investment options.

For the people of Berbice, the bridge will more than provide jobs. It will serve to deepen the integration between Region 6 and the rest of the country. It is also likely to boost investment and trade within the region.

Berbice at this time critically needs a shot in the arm when it comes to investment and trade. There are by far too limited opportunities for the young people of that region. Hopefully, this bridge will lead to the progressive transformation of the Ancient County.

This excursion into infrastructure therefore marks a pioneering development for the group of investors and if successful, could lead to investments in other major public works which traditionally were felt to not yield the returns demanded by private investors.

Through its involvement in the Berbice River Bridge, the private sector has shown that it has the financial means to undertake large-scale investments. They have also demonstrated that they have the managerial and technical expertise needed for such an undertaking.

In fact, there are many persons who believe that had such a project been executed by the government it would have been behind schedule over the budget.

Under the terms of the contract signed between the investors and the government, the bridge will be built, owned and operated by the private consortium for in excess of twenty years after which it will be passed on to the people.

This is a first for this type of model and we hope that in light of the progress made so far, the government will see the wisdom of using this model for other major investment projects.

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The Berbice River Bridge

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