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Suriname ferry service shuts down
Moleson Creek bridge collapses under weight of truck and dragline
The broken bridge and the dragline lying on its side.
By Leonard Gildarie
Travel by Guyanese using Moleson Creek, Berbice, to get to Suriname was thrown into disarray Thursday as a truck transporting a dragline collapsed a key bridge at Crabwood Creek.
Kaieteur News was told that shortly after 16:00 hrs Thursday, the dragline was being transported on a low-bed trailer across the bridge linking Crabwood Creek and Moleson Creek when the steel-plated structure broke under its weight. The bridge is one of three linking the two villages.
There were no reports of injuries. Yesterday, officials said the ferry service between Guyana and Suriname has been affected and will be out of commission for three days time that emergency workers are hoping that it will take to build a temporary bypass.
Officials of the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation were in the area yesterday to assess the situation.
According to Rickford Lowe, Head of the Work Services Group of the Ministry, the bridge was totally impassable to vehicles and only pedestrians could cross.
Walter Willis, an engineer attached to the ministry, was still in the area yesterday afternoon as attempts were made to remove the dragline which was on its side in the waters below.
The bridge was the one leading directly to the access road of the ferry stelling.
The incident Thursday, residents said, would have caused severe fallout for the busy area which is key to cross-border trade and traffic between Guyana and Suriname.
Although a large number of persons still prefer to use the backtrack route at Springlands, Corentyne, vehicles could only cross at the Moleson Creek stelling.
Yesterday, the situation would have taken a more serious implication because of the Eid-ul-Adha celebrations across the country and for the hundreds of residents who would have been affected.
According to one resident of Moleson Creek, many persons who have families on both sides would have been crossing.
A Georgetown resident who was en route to the stelling said that he was forced to return to the city after the accident forced the bridge’s closure.
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