Berbice Bridge breaks down

Nov 22, 2014 News

…PM Hinds among those stranded

Hundreds of persons were stranded on both sides of the Berbice River last evening as the

Long lines of vehicles and frustrated commuters along the Berbice River Bridge Road Eastern End at Crab Island last evening.

retractor span of the Berbice River Bridge stopped working. The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic at around 15:30 hrs yesterday, but when it was time to close the span to allow flow of traffic at around 17:00 hrs, there were problems.
Technicians were feverishly working to ascertain the root cause of the problem. Meanwhile, irate motorists and passengers at both the Palmyra and D’Edward ends of the bridge wondered when they would get to their destinations. Many feared that they would miss their flights out of the country.
Among those stranded were Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds and his team who were in Berbice yesterday. According to reports, the Prime Minister checked into a New Amsterdam Hotel for the night.
Angry commuters, speaking with this newspaper last evening along the eastern end of the Bridge (Crab Island road) related their frustrations, especially since no official from the company visited the scene to inform them about what has been going on and when the problem would be fixed. One vendor was transporting an entire vehicle of cabbages to the Rosignol Market which were supposed to have been sold today. He is afraid the entire batch would spoil overnight if he does not make it across the Bridge.
Many commuters were also left stranded in pitch darkness since only two of the approximately thirteen road lights along the Berbice Bridge road are in working order. Many feared the threat of bandits

Jeep load of cabbage destined for the Rosignol Market today, stranded.

robbing them of their valuables, especially since there was little or no police presence. A police vehicle and a few ranks were seen close to the barrier that was put across the road just metres away from the bridge, but commuters were worried that there was no other police presence.
Other vehicles stranded included fuel shipments and dry goods as well as persons heading to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
The Berbice River Bridge Company was running a notice on all of the Berbice television stations apologizing for the inconvenience caused and related the cause of the problem as a failure of the retractor span.
A statement on the bridge’s FaceBook page said last evening that, “Management of the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. sincerely regrets that the Berbice River Bridge Retractor Span is experiencing technical Issues, which has resulted in an unexpected delay in the scheduled re-opening of the bridge to vehicular traffic.”
Transport Minister, Robeson Benn, confirmed that ferries were activated between Rosignol and New Amsterdam. Engineers managed to effect a temporary fix around 21:00hrs and it is expected that traffic across the Bridge would have resumed.