Berbice Bridge fully operational again

Nov 26, 2014 News

Repairs to the Berbice River Bridge have been completed, with the facility fully functional

The Berbice River Bridge, which went down after problems with a retractor last Friday, is now fully functional after repairs, management says.

again, following a mechanical malfunction that occurred last Friday afternoon.
According to the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. (BBCI), it was the first incident since the structure’s official opening on December 23rd, 2008, in which it had to be closed to traffic.
This all changed Friday when at 14:35 hours, after retracting without any problems for three vessels to transit, it was found that the controller on the west side that closes the bridge was faulty. “This resulted in a delay in closing the retractor while BBCI’s engineers and technicians replaced the unit that was not working.”
The west retractor span was then successfully closed at approximately 21:35 hrs. Traffic was allowed 10 minutes later and with free passage given to vehicles until midnight.
According to BBCI, the company’s engineers and technicians worked “assiduously” to successfully repair and reinstall the controller.
“Always mindful of the safety of the public, numerous tests were conducted on the entire control system which proved to be a time consuming but necessary exercise. After several test runs, the problem has been fixed and the bridge is now operating normally.”
BBCI insisted that the structure was built with the latest state-of-the-art technology.
“We are proud that our engineers and technicians were able to troubleshoot and solve the problem without having to bring in help from the builders, Bosch Rexroth and Mabey and Johnson or any other source.”