US$5.3M bridges to improve drainage capacity

Sep 05, 2013 News

The Public Works Ministry is expected to construct 20 drainage structures designed to withstand current and projected rainfall intensity for the next 50 years in several communities on the West Coast Berbice and East Bank Demerara by October month-end.
This is according to Sunil Ganesh, Bridges Engineer of the Public Works Ministry. He noted that even with climate change, engineers could predict the pattern of rainfall base on a hydraulic analysis over the past 10 years.
He said that this US$5.3M project is expected to improve drainage for farming communities.
Ganesh said last year July that the project to rehabilitate two bridges at Coverden and Timehri, East Bank Demerara, and 18 on West Coast Berbice has commenced.

Culvert constructed at West Coast Berbice.

The contractor Kares Engineering is tasked with reconstructing the bridge at Coverden, rehabilitating the structure at Timehri, one at Carlton Hall, and seven between Belladrum and Cotton Tree to a tune of US$2.6M.
He said that the structure at Coverden has been reopened to traffic but is incomplete. The contractor has to erect the head and wing walls on both sides. And, rehabilitative works at Timehri include repairs to the head and wing walls to prevent the road from being eroded. He added that a revetment has to be erected to prevent erosion of the roadway.
Meanwhile, V. Dalip Enterprise was contracted to rehabilitate bridges between Bath Settlement and Cotton Tree to the tune of US$2.7M. He noted that several of these bridges have been completed and works are being done to conclude the project by the October deadline.
This project is Lot B of the Inter-American Development Bank funded Transport Infrastructure Rehabilitation Programme. Lot A was executed between 2009 and 2013 and saw the enhancement of 25 structures between Timehri and Rosignol.
He said that Lot One of this infrastructural project started in 2003. Since then 83 bridges between Timehri and Rosignol were constructed.