Latest update March 21st, 2025 7:03 AM
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Controversy brews over $20M Pigeon Island Bridge construction
This $20m Pigeon Island bridge under construction
Controversy is brewing over the ongoing construction of a $20 million bridge at Pigeon Island, East Coast Demerara.
The contract stipulates that construction should be finished in six months, by March. It is in its third week of construction through the Colwin Talbot Company.
Overseer Gavin Amsterdam said the works are 60 percent completed. Upon completion the bridge should have a walkway, rails, concrete decks and slabs but some residents are contending that the works are substandard and they insist that their contentions will be proven overtime.
One resident told this publication that the first issue is that the piles driven into the earth to support the bridge are “way too short.”
The overseer however retorted that the length of the piles should have been 50 feet but to ensure a quality service 70-foot piles were used instead.
Amsterdam said, yesterday, that contrary to reports from irate residents, the bridge construction work is in keeping with the contract specifications.
He noted that some residents do not want the bridge because it may affect their economic earnings. He said, “The old bridge was low and when the rain fall people does charge $100 to cross in the boat. That will not happen any more once this bridge done so some people vex.”He noted that while some might want to say the bridge is not worth the more than $20M that is the contract and they will get their monies worth.
He added that while factions of the community may have issues it was the larger section of the community that asked for the bridge to be built.
One complaint was that the northeastern side of the bridge is void of reinforcement and that this will cause the bridge to deteriorate faster.
But the overseer provided evidence that the rods are beneath an earthen section and said that some persons are just disgruntled for reasons unknown.
Residents are disturbed and some say they will not take lightly the substandard works and pointed to the concrete pallets being used. “Them slabs supposed to soak for at least 14 days but them only make them seven days ago and the already laying them”, one resident said.
But the overseer retorted that the concrete being used is approved by the National Bureau of Standards and that the slabs were soaked for a long enough period.
He however said that while the firm has employed a security guard from the area to watch over the equipment and material, some residents are engaged in stealing the materials. While the contractor is out of the country the overseer says the proof of his company’s work includes the Rosignol Bridge in Berbice, a bridge at Unity and several road contracts and buildings, including the new Region Four building.
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