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Govt. eyes new harbour bridge, to spend US$300M
Government is eyeing two locations for the construction of a new reinforced concrete Demerara Harbour Bridge, either from Versailles, West Bank Demerara (WBD) to Houston, East Bank Demerara or from Patentia West Bank Demerara to New Hope, East Bank Demerara.
This was revealed by DHB’s General Manager Rawlston Adams, during his presentation at the recent Public Works Ministry third Engineering Conference.
Proposed location for DHB from Versailles to Houston
He said that the preferred location to erect the 2.25 kilometers structure is from Versailles to Houston. The company contracted for this project must have the capacity to design and build.
Though the Public Works Ministry will not design the structure it has outlined its requirements which include a reinforced concrete bridge with at least four lanes; pedestrian walkways; navigational channel of 100 metres; air draft of 50 metres; and maximum gradient of five percent.
Adams said that because the channel (the deepest part of a river) of the Demerara River is closer to the East Bank Demerara the 100-metre navigational channel and 50 metres air draft will be situated there. He further explained that since the bridge will have a maximum gradient of five percent it will pass over the existing East Bank Demerara Public Road to aback Houston.
There it will connect to the Southern Approach Road sending traffic directly into Georgetown. The Southern Approach Road will be erected east to the East Bank Demerara Public Road connecting to the Mandela- Sheriff Road.
Another option within that option will see on and off ramps to facilitate commuters who do not want to travel on the Southern Approach Road to go into town. Adams said that the off ramp will pass through the Houston by-pass while the on ramp will come from in front of Banks DIH. The tolling booths for the bridge will be located at Versailles.
The estimated cost for the construction of this new structure is between US$250M and US$300M. He added that the pre-feasibility study for the bridge would be completed within the four to six weeks.
According to Adams, the new bridge will be managed by the construction company. He explained that the company building the bridge will own and operate it. After the company would have recovered its cost it would transfer the entity to Government.
The General Manager related that the bridge will take a while to complete and its start cannot be delayed. He assured that the construction of the new bridge is to satisfy the growing volume of traffic. Between January 2009 and December 2012 there are 1,820 new trips per month.
Daily about 13,000 passengers including approximately 500 schoolchildren cross the Demerara River via speedboats from Vreed-en-Hoop to Georgetown. It is expected that the new bridge will take about 50 percent of those passengers. He assured that speedboats will still be needed.
Unaware of what will become of the existing Harbour Bridge, Adams said that Public Works Ministry will salvage the bridge materials to build a fix bridge at Kurupukari. In addition, the pontoons will be used to build floating docks at Bartica, Parika, Supenaam, Vreed-en-Hoop, and Georgetown for the speedboats.
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